Breaking the Cage
by ontuva
Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore! 2007-movie verse. OC/Twins. AU.
1. Chapter 1: Reborn

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: Open Office ;_;

Rating: T

Pairing: ?

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance?

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence (hm. They go really well with the genres, don't you think?), AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Tranformers, although I'd like to. ;_; (Well, I do own Bumblebee, Ironhide and Ratchet as toys.) I don't get any money from writing this fic, so don't sue me! I don't have any money, I'm a student. ;_;.

Word count: 3,550

A/N: This is my first Transformers-fic, be gentle with me! ^_^ I got the idea about two months ago and been thinking about it since. First I thought I would not write this, because I have so many other fics I need to work with too, but this just wouldn't leave me alone. I had to write it.

I'm more familiar with Tranformers-movies, so that's why I chose the movieverse. But there will be bots that weren't in the movies and I'm going to take the AU-route here. So Revenge of the Fallen and Dark Side of the Moon have not happened.

oOo

**Chapter 1: Reborn**

"I'm going to take the job," she informed bluntly. Immediately she regretted saying those words. The result was one dropped coffee mug and ruined carpet. She'd be cleaning that one later, but now she had to face the storm that was in front of her. Not that she wasn't expecting the reaction to be fierce, after all she had spent all her day thinking of all the possible scenarios of breaking the news to her fiance. They all ended rather badly.

"What?" was the stunned reply. Brown eyes stared at her, the shock evident in them. "I thought we talked about this, Aurora! I don't want to move to Mission City. Not after those terrorist attacked it!"

She rolled her eyes at him. It was always like this with Dave. He always found some reason why she shouldn't be doing this or shouldn't be doing that. She was getting tired of it. And she had gotten a lot of pep-talk from her co-workers too. This time she would do something she wanted instead of doing something Dave wanted.

"I was there during the attack, Dave! I told you – it wasn't a terrorist attack! There were huge robots fighting each other and I even got the shrapnel in my chest to prove it. The government is hiding something. Something big and metallic, I might add!"

"More the reason for you to stay out of the city! Goddammit woman, are you an idiot or just plain crazy?" Aurora could see the fists of Dave tensing and relaxing.

"I'm a nurse! I help people where they need me! The city is still in chaos and they need more workers!" She tried touching Dave to soothe him down and cringed when he pushed her hand away. "I just want to go where I'm needed."

Aurora Banes had been working as a nurse for four years in the local health center. She knew her every patient by name, greeted them politely when saw them out in town and even visited her neighbors when they needed her. Yet she felt like she could do more. Living in a relatively small town made her feel like she was caged. And in a way she probably was.

Years ago she had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but a certain tall, black-haired and freakishly handsome man had stepped in her life and made her dreams change. Now her dreams consisted of Dave and a small house with a backyard. Then her boss had told her about the job in Mission City. It started haunting her. She just knew she had to take it. After the attack Mission City had suffered it became even more important for her to get to work there.

"What about me? I need you too!" Dave yelled and threw his arms in the air his face full of disgust. "Oh, now I get it! You want to leave to the big city to have fun! And you'll laugh with your new friends to your pathetic fiance who's waiting for you at home!"

"Dave! I'd never do that and you know it! And I want you to move to Mission City with me!" she tried to reason with him. He was just shocked because of the situation. He would come to his senses. Aurora was sure of that. Or at least she hoped so.

"And leave all my friends? Leave my folks? Not happening, Aurora! Not in this life!" There was a dangerous glint in his eyes that Aurora had seen many times before, but this was something she wanted so badly! She needed this! Sudden fear of never leaving the small town and not living her life made her blurt out words she never thought she would say out loud:

"What friends? The only friends I've seen you have all the drunks in the local bar! And you don't have a job, so what's the problem? It's not like you visit your folks either!" She gasped in surprise when she felt her head hit the nearby wall. For a moment her vision blurred and stars danced in front of her instead of Dave's angry face.

"Don't ever speak to me like that again," he growled at her ear. "I'll kill you if you take the job!" She tried apologizing, but his hand was choking her so hard the only sound she was able to make was pathetic whimpering.

"Could you repeat, because I didn't quite hear you," he taunted her. "What did you say? Are you sorry?"

"I'm...sorry," Aurora managed to squeeze out and to her relief Dave released his grip from her throat but still kept her pinned against the wall.

"Good girl," he whispered and patted her head like she was a dog. "I'll be going to see my _friends _now and when I come back I want to hear nothing about Mission City." He glanced behind him and then back at Aurora. "I want that rug to be cleaned too. Is that clear? Understood?"

"Yes," she uttered and kept her gaze on the floor. Tears were gathering in her eyes and she was trying her best to not let them out. Dave wouldn't like that. He never liked when she was crying. He said it made him feel like a villain, when he was only correcting her errors. He was only making her a better person and protecting her from mistakes she might take.

"Good." He gave her a kiss on the forehead, patted her cheek and left the house while whistling happily. The closing door left an echo in the house and Aurora couldn't shake the feeling that was the door of her cage closing and locking her in.

When she knelt down on the floor and started collecting the broken pieces of the mug she finally let the tears come. At first it was just a single tear but it broke the dam. She was sobbing uncontrollably, the despair and disappointment finally taking a form. She was living Dave's dream, not her own. Realizing it made her sob even more. It wasn't easy to admit to herself that the last eight years of them being together were a huge mistake. It wasn't easy to admit that the handsome football player that had fallen for one of his team's cheerleaders would some day turn out to be an abusive fiance who lived off on his girlfriend's paycheck.

Yet Aurora had loved him. She had accepted his flaws and tried to understand why he did what he did. Every time she received a beating she reasoned it must have been because of something she did.

She still remembered the first time. It was after they had graduated and she had decided to surprise him. After being a long haired blonde for her whole life she had craved for a change. Turned out Dave did not. When he saw her chocolate brown hair that was now shoulder length, he had gone nuts. He had yelled at her because she had not asked for his permission and in the end slapped her. Of course that led to a series of apologies and Aurora's heart had melted. Dave had promised it would be the first and last time.

It wasn't.

The worst had been after she had gone to Mission City. Aurora had told him she was going to have a job interview about a vacant nurse spot in one of the larger hospitals in Mission City. She had thought he'd be happy. It turned out to be quite the contrary. After he found out she had gone to the interview, even when he had clearly stated she wasn't going to go anywhere, he had been beyond rage. It didn't matter Aurora had survived an attack the government was blaming on the terrorists.

Luckily she had been able to use Mission City as an excuse for her injuries when showed up at work. Explaining broken hand, bruises, concussion and a nasty cut on her side would've been difficult otherwise.

After that she had tried to explain to Dave why the job in Mission City was so important to her and why she had wanted to go. It was like talking to a wall. A wall that beat you and kicked you down.

But never had he threatened to take her life. A sudden surge of fear passed through her. This had been her wake up call. If she wanted to be happy, she'd have to do it without Dave in her life.

oOo

The first thing Aurora did in the morning was to sneak in their living room and call to the hospital that had wanted to hire her. She didn't dare to step outside the house, fearing Dave might wake up and realize what she was doing.

After stating her name and that she was glad to accept the job that was offered to her Aurora couldn't help but to feel relieved. She was turning a new page on the book of her life. A smile danced in her lips. She was finally doing her own decisions!

"Glad to have you on board, Miss Banes! Your work starts at 9 am on Monday in room 8010 with orientation. Welcome to Mission City!"

"Thank you! See you on Monday!" she ended the call. For a while she just sat still and stared out of the window. Mission City. A new job. With endless possibilities! A goofy grin settled on her face.

"Who are you seeing on Monday?" a grim voice asked behind her. Aurora froze. Her mind was racing. She needed to think of something, quickly!

"Ah, mom called!" she made up. "She and dad will be visiting us on Monday. Hope you don't mind?" Aurora hoped her face didn't betray that she was lying. Dave seemed to buy it, since he didn't lash out at her. But he didn't look happy either.

"I've never liked your parents," he muttered and went grumpily into the kitchen only to return a moment later with empty coffee pot in hand. "Now what's wrong with this picture?"

Aurora quickly rose to her feet and smiled apologetically at him.

"I'm sorry, mom called before I had the chance to do anything," she explained and was surprised when she didn't feel any guilt for lying straight at his face.

They shared their breakfast in silence. Dave was brooding in his coffee mug and Aurora was too busy focusing on her yoghurt. She feared she might slip something if she tried small-talking.

"You know what?" Dave asked her when the silence started to feel too suffocating. Aurora raised her eyes from the yoghurt to meet his gaze.

"What?" she asked.

"You still remember that cavern-expedition they are having nearby?"

"Yes?" Aurora furrowed. She had wanted to go there during the summer, but Dave had always told her not to.

"Well, they are closing it the next week, because they don't have that many tourist going there anymore. I was thinking that maybe I have been too harsh on you. Would you like to go there tomorrow?" He even did his famous knee-buckling smile at her. Aurora hadn't seen that smile in ages. She couldn't resist smiling back. Maybe she had been too harsh on Dave too. Maybe they both could go to Mission City and start anew. She could try to bring the subject up when they came back from the expedition.

"I'd love to!" she answered, her eyes gleaming with joy.

oOo

"The origins of these paintings are unknown, although scientist and archaeologist are debating wildly where they might've come from and what the pictures are displaying. Some are saying they see a huge robot in these paintings! That of course had led to wild tales and rumors on how there is actually a huge alien robot-grave under these rocks! Can you believe that? Well, of course we haven't found any proof of any aliens and if you ask me that picture represents more a mammoth than a robot..."

"How long is he going to talk about those stupid markings. No one cares," Dave muttered angrily. Aurora glared at her. She had been interested in everything the guide had had to say!

So far the expedition had been everything she had dreamed it would be. It was a dark cave filled with stories to tell! Although the area deemed tourist-safe was small compared to the size of the whole complex, it was still big enough to have a two hour expedition. She felt like Indiana Jones!

"Hey, let's have an adventure!" Dave suddenly whispered in her ear, his voice suddenly mischievous. Aurora raised her eyebrow at him. Adventure? She was already having one!

She yelped in surprise, when Dave snatched her hand and began softly pulling her away from the others. Aurora glanced back at the group that was still too focused on the guide to see two people slip away in the side corridors.

"What are you doing? We'll get lost!" she hissed at Dave, but shut her mouth when she saw Dave glare at her.

"I want to see the bridge!" Dave explained and continued his walk. Aurora didn't have a choice but to follow, realizing her hand was now gripped tightly by Dave. She hoped they wouldn't get lost. As if guessing her thoughts she showed her a map he was holding.

"I got this from a friend. They went to see the bridge and said it was the best part!"

"Why isn't the guided tour going to this bridge then?" Aurora asked. She was still afraid of getting lost in the tunnels. Then again, they were still in an area that was lit, so they'd probably find their way back following the lights.

"It was closed off, because it was considered to be too dangerous."

"Too dangerous?" She didn't like the sound of that.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe. There are crystals there I want to show you." Dave turned his head towards her so she could see the dashing smile he was sending her way. Aurora felt her heart skip a beat.

"Crystals?" she breathed.

"Yep! I thought you might like them. They say they look like stars. I want my star to shine amidst them."

"You are so sweet!" Aurora couldn't help but to feel happy with him. It was like he was a changed man. Maybe even he had realized he had gone too far and was now ready to change back to the man he used to be.

"I love you too, babe. I love you too," he chuckled. She couldn't resist an eager giggle.

Her mood changed though when they didn't find any bridge. They were on a ledge. A cold dread settled in Aurora's heart, but she refused the believe in the warning her brain was screaming at her.

"It seems the bridge is collapsed," she pointed out and tried not to stand so near the edge. She couldn't see to the bottom and it didn't take her long to decide she didn't even want to. Aurora wanted to go back to the group. It was clear there was nothing to see here. Even though Dave had promised her crystals.

"So it seems," Dave replied darkly and Aurora's gaze widened when she heard the malice in his voice. Suddenly she felt very, very scared and alone. Oh, why had she come here with Dave? She knew he was quick-tempered and unpredictable. She should've known something was going on.

"Dave, you are scaring me," she said and tried to walk back to the corridor they had come from, but Dave had an iron-like grip from her hand.

"Don't you dare to go anywhere!" he hissed and spun her against him. Aurora felt her breath get caught in her throat. She had never seen Dave look quite so mad. He was literally shaking with rage.

"Dave, what is going on?" she feigned ignorance. What had she done to get him mad? He couldn't have find about Mission City? She gulped. If he had...

"You know perfectly well what is going on, Aurora! You accepted the job! You were going to leave me!" He was squeezing Aurora's arms so hard she was sure bruises were already forming. She had to do everything she could to not yell from the pain. That would only make him angrier.

"No, you got it all wrong! I want you to come with me!" she tried, although she knew it was futile. Dave was already beyond reasoning.

"I don't want to go to Mission City! And I sure as hell don't want you to work there where hundreds of other men can be gawking at you and I can't be there to make sure you are mine and only mine! You – are – mine!" he yelled and shook her violently.

"Dave! Calm down! If you don't want me to go, I won't! Just let me go! You are hurting me!" she pleaded with tears rolling down from her eyes. She couldn't keep them in anymore. Aurora was scared for her life.

"Oh, you think tears are going to save you, you little bitch?" Dave growled at her. "You really think I'm going to pity your little act. I know you have some other guy in Mission City, otherwise you wouldn't be wanting to go there. And I thought I would marry you!" Aurora shook her head.

"There's no other guy, I swear, I love you and only you! Please, let's go home, I want to go home," she begged.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you anymore," Dave stated suddenly devoid of any emotion. "You are still lying to me. I can see it in your eyes. Goodbye, Aurora."

The sudden push made Aurora lose her footing and she could feel herself falling over the edge.

"Help! No! No! Help!" she managed to yell before Dave gave her the final nudge she needed to fall to the abyss that awaited her. She screamed from the top of her lungs and waited for Dave to catch her, to get her back at the last moment. He didn't. Time stopped. Aurora could hear him chuckle. _Chuckle._

"Stupid bitch."

She could see her grinning at her fall until the blackness shrouded her. It felt like she was falling forever. Maybe she was? Maybe this was the eternal torment awaiting for her? To fall endlessly.

Her thoughts stopped abruptly when she met the steel-like bottom. For a moment she could feel excruciating pain, more than she ever thought was even possible of feeling and after that - darkness surrounded with blue light.

oOo

_Warning: low energon. _She squinted her eyes trying to make sense of the text. Then she decided she was still asleep, because the message didn't go away. _Warning: low energon. _It was followed by series of smaller warnings, each and everyone of them telling her as much as the first one – nothing. She concluded that her workday must have been more stressful than before, because her subconsciousness was apparently working a bit too hard.

Then she realized she hurt. She hurt a lot. Dreams didn't usually contain physical pain. She was awake then? But...

The warnings still blinked in front of her eyes. She tried whisking them away with her hand and ended up hitting herself in the face.

"Ow," she muttered or rather tried to. The sound that came out sounded more like static followed with several beeps than her own voice. She fell silent immediately. Then she tried again. The same sound came out.

She laid still for several moments. She had gone crazy. There was no other explanation. She had gone crazy and she was having hallucinations. Vivid hallucinations.

She hoped she could see around her. Maybe this was just a prank. A very good prank, albeit very scary too.

The warning sign didn't leave her sight, but a new message popped up. _Changing to night mode. _She tensed even more. She was even more sure she had gone crazy. No sane person would have this experience. And this was too well done to be prank.

Good news was she could see. Bad news was there wasn't much to see. There were rocks around her. She couldn't see the roof. Apparently she was in a cave of some sorts? And for some reason her hand looked like a robot's hand. Good hallucinations. Very imaginable.

It was at that moment that the memories her consciousness had tried to store away reappeared. The caves, the tour, the bridge, Dave, the fall. There was a weigh on her chest. Her body. Her body broken. Her body bent in a way that shouldn't be possible, the dead eyes starting right at her their light missing. She had died. Aurora Banes had died.

The scream escaping her was alien and echoed through the cavern. She didn't stop until only static came out.

OOo

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Should I continue? Tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2: Liar, Liar

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: Open Office ;_; so yep, beta needed...

Rating: T

Pairing: ?

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance?

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,410

A/N: Wow, I'm amazed by the responses I got! You can't believe how happy you made me feel with your reviews! ^^ Thank you so much!

Hopefully you'll like this next chapter too. We'll be getting some Transformers-action! (I'm louzy at writing action scenes, so don't keep your hopes up. ._.)

And again – I'm taking the AU route. I'm bringing in many characters from the animated series (because you just can't have Sideswipe without Sunstreaker! It's heresy to do so!) and I'm changing the storyline quite much. So again – Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon have not happened. And may not happen, depending on what I'll think of. Hardeharhar! :)

The pairings! I almost forgot! I will be pairing Aurora with someone. You have suggestions? Tell me! I'd like to know who you think could be perfect with our little nurse. :)

oOo

**Chapter 2: Liar, Liar**

"The origins of these paintings are unknown, although scientists and archaeologists are debating wildly where they might've come from and what the pictures are displaying. Some are saying they see a huge robot in these paintings! That of course had led to wild tales and rumors on how there is actually a huge alien robot-grave under these rocks! Can you believe that? Well, of course we haven't found any proof of any aliens and if you ask me that picture represents more a mammoth than a robot..."

"You getting all this, Ironhide?" Major William Lennox whispered in his communicator, which was disguised to look like a handsfree. The small camera hidden in his jacket filmed the walls of the cavern and sent the feed to the Autobot waiting in the parking lot. The dynamic duo, as Sam had started to call them much to their annoyance, had received the mission to find out what was in the cave from Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, after Sam had somehow stumbled upon the web pages of the cave expedition and seen the promo pictures of the markings on the wall.

"Oh yeah. Optimus is going to love this..." came the grumbling answer to his earpiece. "That's definitely Cybertronian. Sam was right about this one. Be on your guard, there might be a Decepticon in there."

"That doesn't really help the claustrophobic feeling I'm having in here," Lennox muttered and glanced around him. A couple was acting strangely, a tall and dark man was currently leading a long-legged blonde towards a side corridor without the guide noticing. Lennox raised his eyebrows. Slipping away to have sex in a cave while having a guided tour didn't strike as very appealing to him.

"I'm calling Ratchet and Bumblebee," Ironhide informed him. Lennox had to remind himself it wasn't because of the couple but because there might a Decepticon lurking in somewhere. But he had to admit - the thought of Autobots blasting their way through walls to surprise the couple humored him.

"You're sure they are needed?" he asked with a smirk riding on his lips.

"Better to be safe than sorry." Lennox had to agree with that one. After Sam had destroyed Megatron with the All Spark in Mission City, the remaining Decepticons had gone underground. Nobody had had sightings of them in three months. They had been granted scanners similar to the Autobots which identified spark signatures, but no Decepticon had been found. Ratchet, the Autobot medic, had been pretty sure the remaining ones on Earth were using dampeners or some other way to hide their spark signatures from the scanners.

With some persuasion from Optimus Prime's part Sector Seven had been reorganized as NEST, Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers. For some reason Lennox still didn't quite grasp, he was now in charge of the Autobots. More often it was Optimus giving him orders than the other way around though. Lennox didn't mind that, it was always easier to follow orders than give them. Not to mention he trusted Optimus, one hundred percent.

"Do your scanners pick up anything?" Lennox just had to ask from Ironhide although he knew the answer already. The weapon's specialist would've told him immediately if he had found something.

"No, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing there."

"How about the writing on the walls?"

"It's very hard to read. Words are missing and the remaining ones don't really make any sense, but there's one sentence that repeats itself over and over again. 'I'm not the first. I'm not the last.' A lot of the lines are just begging for help," Ironhide translated.

"And that means?"

"I have no idea."

"Great," Lennox murmured. "Just great. So we don't know what we are dealing with here."

"Probably something nasty I'd say," Ironhide admitted to him. "Luckily I have all my little babies with me!" Lennox rolled his eyes. Ironhide and his cannons...

His trail of thought was interrupted when a woman's screams from the side corridor reached his ears. For a while everyone in the cave seemed to stay still until a wave of questions rose in the air.

"What the heck was that?"

"Who was that?"

"What's going on?"

"'Hide, I think we got a situation here," Lennox informed his partner after making sure he still had his pistol safely with him. It wouldn't help against a Decepticon, but it was better than nothing.

"Call me if you need me" was the steady reply. "Ratchet and 'Bee are on their way."

"Understood."

"Help! Help! My fiancee tripped and fell! Oh god, someone please help her!" Lennox recognized him as the man, who had slipped away earlier with the blonde girl. Obviously that had been his girlfriend. The tour guide seemed to be in a shock. Lennox couldn't blame him.

"Tripped and fell?" the guide repeated and it seemed like he didn't fully understand what had happened. "What? Where?"

"I'm calling the police!" someone of the tourists said and already started dialing.

"She really wanted to see the crystal-bridge and begged me to go with her and she ran the whole way and I saw a ledge and she," the man made a sobbing sound, "somehow she slipped and fell and I couldn't reach her in time!" A lone tear was falling on his cheek.

"But, but... The crystal-bridge is on the other way," the tour guide stuttered.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that!" the man yelled and sat on the ground, burying his face in his hands. "We were supposed to get married in next month! Oh god, oh god, what am I going to do..."

"The police is on their way."

"How could you let something like this to happen! Why aren't the side corridors closed?" one of the parents who had come with her two sons yelled at the tour guide, who still didn't know how to handle the situation.

"But... but you aren't allowed to wander around. There are warning signs everywhere," he tried to explain but was quickly out-yelled by another parent.

"You really think that children or young people care about your warnings! It just makes them more appealing! Really, the safety here is not on a level I expected it to be! If I had known you can wander off and fall off from a sudden ledge, I wouldn't have come here! Especially not with my children!"

"You alright, Lennox?" Ironhide's worried voice reached his ears.

"Yeah, I am, but apparently one of the tourists fell. The police is on their way."

"Noted."

"Where...where did she fell?" the tour guide asked the sorrow-torn man who was still sitting on the floor, but now had two people comforting him and offering him handkerchiefs.

"Some hole in there," he cried and pointed in the direction he had come. "I tried to yell after her, but received no answer and then I came here to get help."

All the color seemed to drain from the guide's face. Everyone in the room was staring at him.

"I think she's dead," he finally whispered to everyone's shock.

"What do you mean she's dead! You haven't even tried to search for her!" the parent who had yelled at him earlier on continued her rampage.

"Ma'am, that route leads only to the Abyss. We haven't had the time to search it throughout because it's many kilometers deep! Nobody would be able to survive the fall!"

The whole cavern went silent again, except for the man weeping silently for the loss of his future bride.

oOo

"Wow, that was really...something," Lennox muttered next to the black GMC Topkick on the parking lot. The whole place was swarming with police officers and rescue workers. Behind him the yellow Camaro made a revving sound as if agreeing with him. The lime green hummer had stayed further away, because an ambulance arriving with no personnel would definitely cause major suspicion.

"Humans do stupid things," Ironhide muttered. Bumblebee seemed to agree with that one too.

"Yeah, but something doesn't really add up. The woman's boyfriend said she'd wanted to go and had actually ran to the corridor, but I saw them leave. The guy was clearly dragging her and not the other way around! And they sure as hell weren't running," Lennox explained while following the on going operation.

"Now, why would he lie?" Ironhide asked.

"I don't know but I'm going to tell the cops how I saw things. And we have the video to prove his word wrong if he decides to lie again."

"You think he might have had something to do with the accident?" Bumblebee asked.

"If it was an accident. This world is full of sick people. After being in the army nothing really amazes me anymore. But, you never know. Maybe he was just shocked and afraid of the police blaming him for the incident."

"The company holding this expedition is very likely to be the one to receive the blame," Ironhide concluded.

"True. I have to admit though, their security was pretty lousy," Lennox sighed. "It is a shame that something like this needs to happen before anyone does anything to do it."

"But at least we got what we came for," Bumblebee pointed out.

"And maybe even more! You getting this 'Bee?" Ironhide was suddenly fully alert. In a mere second his scanner had come alive.

"Loud and clear. Spark signature and it's approaching fast!"

"Evacuate the humans!" Ironhide commanded and to his satisfaction Lennox was already running towards the police, while waving his NEST-badge and screaming orders. "Ratchet, get your aft here! Now!"

"Already coming!" the medic yelled through the comlink. "Optimus has been notified too!"

Both Bumblebee and Ironhide flinched when the cave wall suddenly exploded when something propelled itself through it. Lennox had dived just in the nick of time behind a police vehicle to avoid getting hit by flying debris. Ironhide's battle computer was already running quick schematics. No one had been hurt yet. The key-word being yet.

The dust was so thick Ironhide couldn't see properly so he instantly switched on thermal mode. What he was seeing didn't surprise him. It was definitely a Transformer. It was crouching low, holding something against its chest. Ironhide wasn't sure whether it was a Decepticon, but he wasn't taking any chances. He quickly transformed to his bipedal mode.

"Lower your weapons and identify yourself!" Ironhide commanded and readied his cannons. "You are outmatched!" Ironhide wasn't sure if his statement was true, but if there was any way to prevent a battle happening with humans nearby a little twisting of the truth didn't bother him. Although he had to admit to himself – he was feeling a bit eager about the prospect of a good fight.

Ironhide had to jump backwards when a plasma cannon left a smoking hole where he had just stood a moment ago. He hoped Lennox had better luck with evacuating the humans than he had with getting the unknown Transformer to surrender. Now it was starting to be clear it was a Decepticon.

"'Con scum!" he yelled and was ready to fire a rocket straight to its faceplate when Bumblebee suddenly attacked it from behind. It let out a horrible screeching sound mixed with static, a sure sign its vocal processors were damaged, when 'Bee's own plasma cannon hit in the shoulder. The thing the 'con was holding tight against its chest dropped to the ground with a soft thud as its hand fell limb on its side.

Somehow it made the 'con frantic. It didn't care about the fact that Bumblebee was currently attacking it from behind and trying to take it down with force. Even when the yellow bot kicked it straight to its faceplate it was still trying to reach for the lump on the ground.

"A little help here?" the scout yelled.

"I can't shoot it while you are in the way!" Ironhide grumbled back at Bumblebee. The 'con seemed to get even more frantic and managed to land a lucky kick on the knee joint of Bumblebee. When the yellow bot wasn't anymore on his way, Ironhide decided to let his rockets on the loose. More static left the con's vocal processor as it started running away while shielding its head with its still working hand. It managed to avoid the rockets somehow, although it seemed to stumble on its own legs in the process. The Decepticon didn't stop though and continued its escape with Bumblebee and Ironhide quickly following.

Either the Decepticon was stupid or extremely stupid when it didn't realize the danger of the ambulance speeding right towards it. Ratchet transformed in mid-motion and tackled the Decepticon from the waist. They span around wildly, both trying to get the upper hand. Ironhide could hear Ratchet's curses while the medic wrestled with the smaller 'con.

"Keep her still!" Ratchet yelled at Bumblebee who reached the duo before Ironhide. Not one to argue with the medic's direct orders, especially if there were any wrenches near-by, Bumblebee helped the larger bot to restrain the still battling 'con.

"Any last words, scrap metal?" Ironhide sneered and placed his cannon near the Decepticon's head.

"Ironhide! Stand down! She's not a Decepticon!" Ratchet snapped while pulling a syringe out of his storage-compartment. "And keep her still Bumblebee, I'm injecting sedatives straight into her energonlines. I don't want to puncture any more than you already have."

"What? Not a 'con! But it attacked us!" Ironhide argued while switching his sight back to normal mode.

"She?" Bumblebee was shocked.

"Are you both blind! It's a goddamn femme, who I think is very afraid! I'll have both of your optics checked when we get back!" Ratchet growled and ignored the screeching static coming from the femme.

"But...but..." Now that Ironhide looked at her it was clear she was a femme. Her build was slightly leaner, while her chest was visibly larger so that a sparkling could fit in. Her faceplate was more feminine with strikingly green optics. Ironhide was quite sure he had never seen anyone with green optics. She also had two thin antennae on the top of head, the left one being almost loose. Her color was very light cream, although now it was covered partly with dust, mud and energon splashes.

"I can understand Bumblebee's confusion, but Ironhide, you should know better!" Ratchet was still continuing his complains.

"Hey!" Bumblebee protested. "I know what a femme is!"

"But you've never seen one!"

"Decepticon's have femmes in their ranks too," Ironhide pointed out and was still keeping his cannons ready. This could be some elaborate trap.

"Yes and they also have Autobot-ingsignia in their chest-plate," Ratchet muttered. Ironhide could hear his cannons whine when his shoulder slumped.

"Oh. Sorry," he murmured.

"Don't apologize to me! Apologize to her!"

"Sorry," both Ironhide and Bumblebee said and were interrupted by Lennox, who ran to them.

"How to hell am I going to fix this?" Lennox yelled and pointed at the situation going on. The police were gawking at the Autobots and some were even taking pictures. "I already called Simmons and Optimus, but I don't know if and most importantly how I can keep them under control until Simmons gets here with cover-ups! And you know what! The thing he," Lennox now pointed at the femme, "dropped was the body of the missing woman! Now they are sure he killed it!"

"She," Ironhide corrected almost automatically now that he knew the truth.

"She? There are shes? Then you can, oh wait, don't answer to that." Lennox resisted an involuntarily shudder. He had to use every ounce of his willpower not to think about Autobots having a sex life. It was too weird.

"What?" Ironhide asked.

"Nothing, I'm going back to the police and pretend I didn't think of anything." Lennox was already walking back towards the police.

"What?" the weapon's specialist repeated with a threat in his voice.

"Drop it, 'Hide or I'll give Sarah permission to drive you while she's goes shopping!" Lennox answered. Bumblebee couldn't resist a snort and received a slap on his head.

"If you tell Optimus about that I'm going to make sure you disappear during our next mission."

"I'm sorry. I heard nothing," Bumblebee whispered and protected his head in fear of another hit. Ironhide's slaps hurt.

"I heard everything," Ratchet said. His tone of voice was somewhat humored.

"Ratchet – you are dead," Ironhide swore and pointed his cannons at him.

"Remember that next time you need repairs," he just commented clearly not being intimated at all.

"Fraggit, I wish First Aid was here," Ironhide muttered. First Aid had been Ratchet's medical student back in Cybertron and was easier to work with than his teacher was. Meaning it was easier to scare First Aid in co-operation than Ratchet.

Their banter ended when the femme once again let out some static. Ratchet still sat atop of her and had even put cuffs on her hands, just to be sure. He wasn't that worried about their safety than he was of the femme's. He didn't want her to hurt herself even more by trying to run away or by firing at Ironhide again.

"I'm sorry, we really don't trust you enough to let you go free," he explained to the femme, who fell silent. "And I'm sorry we hurt you."

"I'm sorry I hurt your arm, miss. I thought you were a 'con," Bumblebee apologized and looked absolutely heartbroken. Ironhide was somewhat envious of how well he could portray his feelings through his facial impressions. When Ironhide tried to look apologetic, he only managed to look more angry.

"I'm Ratchet, the Autobot's medic. The yellow one is Bumblebee, our somewhat dimwit scout and the last one is Ironhide, our weapon's specialist and currently our second in command. I know you can't answer us, because your vocal processors are clearly damaged. When we get back to the base, I'll have a look and fix them. I'll fix your arm too." The femme seemed to nod.

Everything went rather well until the police lifted the body bag and the femme noticed it. Ratchet had been lulled into a state where he thought the femme wouldn't struggle anymore and found himself lying on the ground on his back – to his amazement. He hadn't been surprised by a patient in a long time.

And definitely not by a femme.

Ironhide was awake though and managed to stop the femme by standing in her way and grabbing her shoulders. He didn't know why the femme was so emotional because of the body, because that clearly was causing it, but he had to admit he was curious.

"She's dead. There's nothing you can do about it," Ironhide said and hoped the compassion he felt towards her came through. Did she somehow know the unfortunate woman? Was that why she had went to the side corridors with her boyfriend? To meet with the femme?

The femmes whole body seemed to gave out and she fell on her knees. Quiet static came out from her.

"Did you know her?" the black mech asked. The femme seemed to think for a while before she nodded. Her optics seemed to scan the area before stopping. Her whole face turned into something Ironhide couldn't quite read until she tried to run from him again. This time both him and Bumblebee were needed to hold her still while Ratchet gave her another dose of sedatives.

They all were puzzled by her actions but at least Ironhide had managed to caught a glimpse of what she had been looking at -the boyfriend of the missing woman who was pointing at the femme, yelling:

"It killed her! The robot killed her!"

Ironhide had the tingling feeling of him lying.


	3. Chapter 3: Awaken

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: SammieValAlxJas

Rating: T

Pairing: Open for suggestions!

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU, OOC(?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,350

A/N: I'm still amazed by you people. You have no idea how happy you make me! (And my muse in singing because of you! I'm having so many ideas I can't even keep up with them!).

I still haven't decided about the pairing. XD All the Autobots are so sweet I'm having a real hard time picking one. So I migh put up a poll and let you decide! If I do so, I'll let you know!

Again, I want to thank each and everyone of you for taking time to read my fic. :) And big thanks to those who leave a review!

A/N2 (EDIT): The betaed chapter now here! HUUUUGE thanks to SammieValAlxJas who checked my work for mistakes. (For example I had no idea vocational actually had nothing to do with voice. XD).

oOo

**Chapter 3: Awaken**

Aurora's head felt sluggish. She hoped she wasn't forming a fever, although the crazy dream she had seen could be explained by it. Her mind always conjured up weird stuff when she was sick. Last time she had dreamed Dave was Jabba the Hut and wanted to eat all her ice-cream. In the end she had attacked him with a ice-cream cone and declared herself as the queen of the Ben&Jerry's. She had felt pretty strange when she had woken up from that one...

"Oh, Dave, you'll never believe how weird dream I just had-" she tried to say but stopped in mid-sentence when only static came out. Aurora's whole body seemed to freeze. She tried again, just to make sure her ears weren't just playing tricks on her.

No, that was definitely just static.

"You're awake? If you turn your optics on, you might even see something" a humored voice said from beside her. She had only a moment to think 'what the hell were they talking about?' when her vision suddenly returned.

From what she could see, Aurora concluded that she was in a medical room of some sorts, and yet, it was nothing like she had ever seen before. There were _car parts _everywhere, not to mention the huge wrench sitting on top of a table that was way too large to be meant for humans. But the smell, the smell was exactly the same as in every hospital.

Antiseptics. It made her feel somewhat cozy. A cough next to her woke her up from her daydreaming.

Suddenly she felt very afraid of looking around her. She slowly turned her head and met the blue gaze of a lime green robot. It was currently working on her arm, combining wires and welding metal to places where it was clearly missing. It was fixing her _robot _arm.

Oh, fucking hell, she really had gone nuts! There was no way in hell she had somehow turned into a freakishly huge robot. Nu-uh. This could _not _be happening. It felt like she was in some sort of weird science-fiction movie. Maybe she had received brain damage when Dave had shoved her against the wall.

Thinking about Dave made her stomach squirm in an unpleasant way. For a moment she let herself think that maybe all this was real. Maybe somehow she really was a robot now. And Dave had... he had...

He had killed her. She was a bit surprised by the lack of emotions she felt. Aurora wasn't angry, sad or even disappointed. She felt empty. Like a part of her was missing and she didn't quite know what it was.

"You know, you could turn your comlink open. It would make communicating a lot easier," the robot next to her suggested and Aurora flinched. What the hell was a comlink? She didn't know what to do! She hoped her face betrayed her emotions, because her vocal outlet was kind of lacking at that moment. All she received as an answer was calm blue stare. Aurora stared back.

"Alright, obviously not turning your comlink on," it muttered and Aurora decided to let out a frustrated sigh, although it sounded more like a broken radio. Now she was getting the reaction she had hoped for! There it was – a confused stare.

"I'm just wildly guessing here, but you can't turn your comlink on?" It had stopped working with her arm and Aurora nodded before she tried to flex her fingers. Several messages popped on over her vision too quickly for her to follow. Good news was her fingers did work and her arm wasn't just dead weight anymore. Bad news was it hurt like hell.

"I might need to look at your processors too if the comlink isn't working," the robot muttered. "Although with limited supplies I don't know if I'll be able to do anything." Then it seemed to got an idea, because it turned around quickly, startling Aurora, and snatched something from the table behind it. It then gave the thing to Aurora. She had no idea what she was looking at. It looked somewhat like an iPad. Well, a goddamn huge iPad.

"You can write with it," it advised her and paused for a while, "you _can_ write, right?"

Aurora shot him a look, hoping her annoyance showed through. Of course she could write, she wasn't an idiot! She just wasn't used to technological gadgets.

She looked at the iPad-clone and was relieved to see there was a keyboard similar to her computer at work. Slowly she started typing while the robot next to her followed the words appearing to the screen.

_What are you?_

Aurora was sure that if the thing had had eyebrows they would now be raised very, very high. It had a peculiar look on its face. When she thought about it for a while, she could actually recognize the look. It was the same she gave to patients who weren't exactly all there.

"What do you mean?" It's tone of voice was bordering on suspicious.

_You are a robot? Are you alive or a machine? _She was quite sure the robot was of the same kind as the ones she had seen in Mission City. Were they the government's new secret weapon?

"I'm an Autobot. Like you. We are sentient beings from Cybertron. You don't remember your home planet?" It was reaching for something behind its back. Aurora hoped it wasn't another dose of sedatives.

_I'm Aurora Banes. I am human._

"You are an Autobot," it replied steadily, not taking it's eyes off of Aurora.

_No! I fell from a ledge, died and now somehow I am a robot. Do you have any humans here? Someone who I could talk with and who could help me?_

"I... I don't understand. What do you need humans for?" It seemed very puzzled. Aurora started to feel even more annoyed. Wasn't it clear! She couldn't explain her problem to a robot! They were...robots! Yet, when she looked at it, her mind reminded her it had said it was sentient. And it wasn't from Earth. She started to feel dizzy.

_You are a robot, right? I need humans! Someone who's alive._

"I'm very much alive." Aurora could hear the hurt in its voice. Her hands started to tremble. Was she really talking to an alien? Had she turned into an alien?

_You are not a robot? _She had to ask. She had to make sure.

"No." Aurora felt like everything she had brought up to believe in suddenly crashed. They – were – aliens. Aliens for Christ's sake!

_You think like humans? _She was afraid of the answer. Well, right now she was afraid of just about everything. And she was very confused. You don't get to meet aliens everyday. Aliens!

"I do think if that's what you are asking," it explained slowly, still keeping it's gaze firmly on Aurora. She hoped it didn't think she was going to escape or anything, because quite frankly she was too shocked to do anything. She just wanted someone to help her!

_So you are not a robot? _Aurora knew she was walking in circles, but somehow her brain had decided not to accept the information that was given to it.

"In human terms, no." It seemed to get tired of the questions too. Somehow she couldn't blame it. Was it even a it? Or he? Or...what the hell was it?

_You are an alien? _She hoped she didn't sound rude.

"Yes," it answered and looked at Aurora like she had grown a second and a third head at the same time and was now producing tentacles from her mouth. But if it was an alien, then it would be rude to call it 'it'? It was a person, right?

_You are not 'it'? _Were aliens easily irritable? Would she be the one to ruin the relations?

Aurora's mind was swirling with doubts and questions. Maybe she really was crazy. Maybe she currently was sitting in a padded white room with a straitjacket on.

"You are referring to me as 'it'? That's... quite insulting actually." Now the hurt in its voice was evident. Aurora quickly figured out she needed to call it something other than 'it' in her head or otherwise she'd blurt it out on speech and text too. She didn't want to insult...the...person...more than she already had.

_So you are a he?_

"I do represent the male version of our species, yes," he huffed and crossed his arms. Or at least they looked like arms. "Is this question-rampage going anywhere?"

_Am I going crazy? _In a way she hoped she already was. Maybe this was just one of her fever dreams. She had to admit to herself that even she didn't believe her own thoughts. No, this was real.

"From what I've analyzed from your text I can safely assume you already are crazy. How long were you in that cave?"

_I don't know. I lost consciousness when... _

"When?" he urged Aurora to continue her story. She didn't know how to continue it. Somehow telling a huge Autobot that her boyfriend had killed her didn't seem like a good idea. She still didn't quite believe Dave had actually done it.

_When I had my accident. _

"Are you really telling me you are the woman who fell from the ledge?" he asked. His tone and face showed that he clearly didn't believe her. Well, it sounded quite unbelievable. But how did he know her?

_You know me?_

"I saw the body you were hugging when you came out from the cave" was the explanation.

_That was me! My body! _

"You do know you are an Autobot. And not a robot – an Autobot."

_No, I don't! I was human!_

"I feel like we are running in circles," he sighed and rolled his eyes. Optics. Whatever they were called.

_You don't understand! I am Aurora Banes, 24 years old, a nurse from Green Valley! A HUMAN!_

"I think you need some rest," he replied to her claims. Goddamn, medics and doctors were always the same! They never believed when they should've!

_I think you need to believe me! Why the hell would I lie?_

"Because I seriously can't figure out any way to see how that could be possible."

_But it is! I can give you every information I have on myself and you can check if it's correct, right?_

"Well, given the fact that you are an Autobot and have access to all the information that humans have put on their Internet, I can safely assume you could be lying too."

_I'm not lying! Goddammit! _And she sure as hell didn't want another dose of sedatives the Autobot was clearly thinking of giving to her.

"You have to admit your story sounds a bit unconvincing. Especially when we find you blasting yourself out of a cave where you were who knows for how long. Staying too long in stasis can make a bot a bit unstable."

_I WAS HUMAN. How can I prove myself?_

It, no _he, _stared at Aurora for a while before sighing in defeat. Aurora felt a wave of relief wash over her. Maybe when he realized that she wasn't actually a real alien, but a human somehow inhabiting an alien's body, they could figure out a way to make her human again.

Although there was a slight problem of her body being dead. She tried not to think about it.

"I could check your memory files and your processors," he offered and started to shuffle through drawers behind him. "I checked you earlier on for viruses and found none, but you were in deep recharge then. This might feel a bit strange." He seemed to find what he was looking for and Aurora tried to see what it was. Her mind had already conjured up many of different kind of saws and drills to get to her head, so she was relieved to see it was just a basic looking link cable.

Before she even registered what was happening, the link cable had found its way in her neck and suddenly she had the very weird sensation of not being alone. Somehow _he _was _there._ In her _head._

She could feel him like she could feel her own thoughts. While she was extremely nervous, confused and somewhat afraid, he just felt... stable. Sure there were doubts and questions, but he handled them like a real pro. Then again, he was a medic. He was probably trained to stay calm in dire situations.

And right now he was like a stable pillar which Aurora could lean on. She felt herself calm down in his presence. Everything would be fine.

Well, everything felt like it was fine until he started poking around in her memories. She knew it was needed for him to believe her yet it felt awkward and too intrusive to make her feel comfortable about it.

She relived some of her life with him: her first bike ride and how wonderfully happy she had been only to crash to a tree a moment later and yell how she never wanted to ride again; the time when she had come home with her first A; the first time she had seen Dave and how her heart had fluttered when he had come to talk to her later on; her first time with him-

Aurora could feel herself blushing ferociously and forced him to back off. He was not allowed to see _those _memories! His presence left her mind as abruptly as it had come and at that moment Aurora couldn't be more happy about it.

"Uhm, I'm... sorry," he murmured and was clearly uncomfortable. Aurora tried to look anywhere else but him. Oh gosh, she was so embarrassed. "For what it's worth, I'm a medic. It not the first time I've witnessed... intimate moments."

Aurora decided that a glare should be sufficient in shutting him up. They could pretend it had never happened and just get on with their lives. That would be fine by her.

There was an awkward silence that stretched on forever. The Autobot medic seemed to be deep in his thoughts and Aurora still couldn't speak. She still had the pad, but she had no idea what she would say. Luckily he was the one to break the silence.

"I believe you now," he started, making Aurora lift her gaze from the pad. So he would help her then? "I have no idea how that would be possible though. And, because your original body is dead, I don't think you can be transferred back to it."

_I'm to stay as a ro- an Autobot then? _She didn't know what to think about that.

"Our race is on the brink of extinction. We need every Autobot there is," the medic explained with a sad look on his face.

_Extinction?_

"We are in the middle of a war. Do you remember what Ironhide called you back at the cave?"

_Sorry, no. I only remember lots of guns, needles and that I panicked. A lot. A lot lot. I don't even remember what you are called. _She told him the truth. The cave and the aftermath was all a blurry mess in her head. It would take time to figure out exactly what had happened and how she had ended up here. Wherever here was.

"I'm Ratchet. If you decide to stay with us you'll probably hear some nicknames based on it, but I'd advise you not to use them while I'm nearby." There seemed to be a slight twitch on his temple, like a vein pulsing in irritation. Aurora felt her own eyebrows raise.

Then a thought hit her – did she even have eyebrows?

She mentally slapped herself. Perhaps now wasn't the best time to think of her eyebrows.

_Ok? In a war? With who? _Aurora had to admit that she was curios. Yet the situation was so absurd! But in a way it was so absurd it had to be true.

"Decepticons. We were once the same, but their leader desired more power than anyone should possess. Nearly all of our femmes and sparklings were killed and the All Spark, the creator and destroyer of everything, was send to space so Megatron couldn't get his servos on it. Who knew it would end up on Earth," Ratchet explained, his optics shifting downwards and his face betraying the sadness he was feeling. "Many good bots died protecting the All Spark. Many good bots have died in this war. And this all has happened because of Megatron."

_Megatron was the big guy in Mission City? _Aurora had a vague feeling she had seen him. She had tried to escape with the rest of the people when the attack had happened, but her nurse instincts hadn't let her. She had stayed to help the wounded.

"And how do you know about that?"

_I was there! I saw the kid plunge that strange object straight to its, I mean his, chest! I even managed to get some collateral damage. A shrapnel lodged itself in my chest when the thing exploded. It was to be removed on next week, but I think I won't be going to that operation now... _

Ratchet fell silent after Aurora's revelation. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

"If the shrapnel was from the All Spark, it might be possible that it caused you to switch bodies," he finally concluded.

_But why? _She was puzzled.

"Does everything always happen for a reason?" Ratchet chuckled. "I'd like to give room for accidents and coincidence too."

_Well. Usually? At least I'd like think I'm not here just accidentally. _Somehow the thought of being alive only because of a mere chance was suffocating. There _had_ to be a reason for it.

"Well, as I said, we need every Autobot there is if we want to survive."

_The war is still going on? _If the war was going on, did it mean she was in danger now, because she was an Autobot? Then again, she had been in Mission City. She had seen the damage caused by the fight. Humans were in danger too. Whether they wanted it or not.

She had wanted to accept the job in Mission City, because she had wanted to do more. She had felt like she was meant to do something more. Maybe she was given a chance to do it? Maybe this was the chance she had hoped and craved for?

"Sadly," Ratchet admitted. "Decepticons are hiding though. We haven't heard of them in months, but I'm sure they are plotting something."

_On Earth?_

"Yes" was the short answer.

Aurora could feel a wave of determination washing through her. Maybe this was something she was meant to do. She didn't believe in accidents and coincidences. Maybe this was her destiny.

_Alright. What do you want me to do? _She could help them, could she not? At least in some way!

"Stay still and let me fix your vocal processors. Watching you type so slowly is annoying."

Aurora's whole body tensed. She had lived with Dave for eight years now, and she knew exactly what happened when Dave was annoyed. Maybe it was the same with Autobots?

_Sorry. _She hoped she had typed more quickly this time. She tensed her shoulders and waited for the slap that usually followed her apologies. It didn't come. She blinked and peeked at the lime-green medic. He was staring at her with a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked slowly.

_Nothing. I'll be still. Start?_

"Femmes," Ratchet muttered and went to search his drawers again. "I've never understood you."


	4. Chapter 4: Bane of His Existence

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: SammieValAlxJas (huuuuge thanks to you!)

Rating: T

Pairing: Still open for suggestions!

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU, OOC(?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,652

A/N: Do I need to thank everyone again? OF COURSE. You are awesome, you are the best, you make me so happy with your reviews! And you, who don't review, you make me happy too! It's awesome to check the traffic on this story and notice it has taken the attention of so many. ;_; Thank you, thank you, thank you!

On to other things then! One my reviewers already asked whether Aurora is somehow related to Mikaela (same surname!) and no, she isn't. I actually thought her surname sounded familiar, but just couldn't place it... And then I had already posted the story and thought 'oh, what the hell, let it be'.

There's actually a story behind Aurora's surname! I was watching Batman (a LOT of Batman... over 100 episodes) and thought I needed a surname for my character. The villain in the episode I was watching was Bane. I added a 's' and got Banes.

And that was how Aurora Banes was born.

oOo

**Chapter 4: Bane of his existence**

After fixing Aurora's slightly outdated but still workable vocal processors, Ratchet hoped that the femme would be happy just sitting still and drinking energon for a moment. He had forbade her to talk for now, because he feared his already stretched tight nerves might snap. He was, as humans said, on the edge.

You didn't meet femmes everyday-_especially_ not femmes who were originally humans. When she had first written the sentence on the pad, Ratchet had just brushed it off as confusion from being in stasis for so long. Not even in his wildest dreams had he dared to think that it might be true, until the femme became so persistent he just had to check it out.

Of course, he knew something was wrong the moment she didn't turn her comlink on. He knew something was terribly wrong when she started writing in English. At first, he thought it was because he had started communicating to her in English, but she hadn't even realized when he had asked her questions in Cybertronian.

She didn't know Cybertronian.

When that thought had crossed his mind he decided that something must have been wrong with her memory files. Something he hadn't seen when he had checked them for viruses and malware.

There was also something in her green optics that, somehow, had made him want to believe Aurora. They were _pleading_ for him to believe her. So, he ignored what his processor were telling him to do and listened to his spark instead. He checked her memory files once more.

What Ratchet discovered was more astonishing than he ever could have imagined. She was telling the truth. There was no way she could have forged those memories – they were so full of life, emotion and reality. Besides, he could easily check whether the years, school records, birth certificates, basically anything matched to her memories.

He _was_ surprised, though, by the amount of her willpower. She easily shoved him off when he pried open one of her more intimate memories. As a medic, he didn't know what there was to be ashamed off. Even Sam had had a coughing fit and yelled for Bumblebee to help him when Ratchet had tried to ask him how long it would take for him to reproduce with Mikaela.

Humans were strange sometimes.

But what he had seen made the fact clear to him – she had definitely been a human. And somehow, the All Spark had switched her mind to an Autobot body. In a way, it made sense, and yet it made no sense. Ratchet knew he had to talk about it to Optimus. He would know what to do.

Leaving Aurora alone in the med-bay was out of the question, though. Not that Ratchet was afraid of her spying on anything, but he feared she might somehow hurt herself because, apparently, she had no idea how to be a Cybertronian. The first cup of energon he had offered to her had splashed its contents straight on her faceplates when her hand had snatched it too quickly.

The look of sheer shock on Aurora's faceplates had amused him a bit, yet at the same time he couldn't help but to feel sorry for her. She was a human. How would she adapt to being an Autobot? If she even could! There were so many things that could go wrong, even without Decepticons interfering.

He had been wiping her face clean with a towel, the femme intent on staring at the floor, when Bumblebee had strode in. Aurora had clearly recognized him, there was no doubt about that. Her whole frame had frozen and her optics were practically glued on the yellow scout. She had even made a small move, like she was going to escape behind the berth, but Ratchet had forced her to sit still.

Ratchet knew it was because Bumblebee had landed a very painful hit on the femme with his plasma cannon, then fought her head on. Her reaction to him was quite understandable, but if she was to stay with them, as Ratchet suspected Optimus would decide, she needed to learn to trust them.

And Bumblebee definitely was the easiest of them to trust. His innocence always lured its way into a bot's spark and even their human allies started to like him almost immediately.

Especially the femme ones. Ratchet had heard them giggling and whispering to each other. Words like "cute," "supercute," "übercute," and "aww" were the most popular ones when Bumblebee was nearby. Obviously they didn't know Autobot hearing was better than humans. Or perhaps they just didn't care.

So what better way to make Aurora a bit more comfortable around them than to let 'Bee work his magic?

"Keep her company, 'Bee. Aurora – stay on the berth. Do not move, and keep your speaking to a minimum."

Bumblebee had tried to stop him before he was out of the med-bay door, telling how Ironhide had twisted his doorwing while sparring, but a glare had shut him up. 'Bee's doorwing could wait, especially since the bot knew how to shut his pain sensors off. Telling Optimus about Aurora's situation could not.

Finding the head mech was rather difficult considering he was the largest mech on the base. For some reason, he had even shut off his comlink, so Ratchet couldn't contact him. Primus! He had to resort into threaten-_asking_ many humans before he finally managed to locate the Prime in one of the quieter hallways with a soldier Ratchet didn't recognize.

"Optimus, may I speak with you?" The addressed leader glanced at Ratchet before saying a polite goodbye to the human he was speaking to. He then turned his steady gaze towards the medic. Even after being Optimus' subordinate for Primus knew how long, Ratchet still felt small when standing next to the last Prime. Luckily, Prime's ego didn't match his physical size.

"Does this concern the femme?" Optimus asked with clear interest in the subject.

Ratchet hesitated for a brief moment. He had no idea how the Prime would react to his news. Even he himself didn't know how to react! The medic had seen many strange things during their war against the Decepticons, but this had to top them all! A human, transforming into an Autobot! Even the idea of it was unbelievable!

"Yes, the femme, Aurora, came online about two Earth hours ago. I...she...she's human, Optimus!" The revelation made Optimus take a step back and his optics widened slightly in astonishment. Ratchet couldn't blame him.

"What do you mean?" the Prime inquired. "How is that possible?"

"Aurora definitely has a femme's body, but she has a human's mind. And I know I sound like I've gotten hit in the processor one too many times, but I checked her memory files. As unbelievable as it sounds – she is telling the truth," Ratchet replied.

"But how is that possible?" Optimus still seemed a bit dazed.

"Apparently, she was in Mission City during the fight with Megatron and got hit by an All Spark shrapnel. I have a theory, although it is a crazy theory, that it might've somehow transferred her human mind into an Autobot-body after her original body died," he explained and sighed. "She is the woman that died in the caverns." How big a shock it must have been for her to die and then wake up...

"I... I don't know what to make of this. You are sure she was a human?" It seemed Optimus was having a hard time wrapping his processors around the idea.

"I am positive." Oh, there was no doubt about it. Ratchet had seen many memory files during his medical career, some of them forged, and her memories...Well, there was just no way they could have been fake.

"Might it still be possible that her original body holds the shrapnel?" Optimus asked after mulling over the idea for a while, making Ratchet snap out from his daze. He hadn't even thought about that! If her body still had the shrapnel in it, who knew what could happen? The shrapnel they had taken from Megatron's body, the only shrapnel they thought had survived, still caused some electronic equipment to come alive spontaneously and was stored safely away because of it. Not to mention the fact it was probably corrupted by Megatron.

"There's only one way to find out," Ratchet pointed out. He knew they both had the same idea – they needed to get the body back as soon as possible.

"I'll contact agent Simmons. He will probably be able to get the body from the authorities before they conduct the autopsy," Optimus reasoned. Ratchet had to agree with him. Although he didn't like agent Simmons personally – rarely anyone did – the guy was in his element when doing cover-ups and using his authority to get something.

"Will it interfere with their investigation?" Ratchet had to ask. He still remembered what Will had said at the caves, and somehow Aurora's story of an accident wasn't that reassuring either.

"Investigation?"

"Lennox seemed to think there was something funny going on there. Like the accident the woman was said to have wasn't an accident. The police are having a full scale investigation of what happened. Lennox suspected that her boyfriend might have had something to do with it."

"Have you asked her?" That was Optimus – always straight to the point. And he was usually right too. Ratchet had pondered on it for a moment, but decided it was best not to start interrogating her right away.

"She claims it was an accident, but something seems to be off," he still voiced his suspicions. Ratchet hadn't checked her memory files concerning the accident, mainly because reliving painful memories could cause a bot to go into a spark shock. Decepticons often used memory loops to make their victims relive their deepest horrors again and again until the victim went crazy. As a medic, he didn't want to make his patient suffer if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

"Perhaps she will tell us when the time is right," the gentle giant concluded. Ratchet didn't quite share his optimism.

"Perhaps" was his short answer.

An incoming comlink signal interrupted their conversation. Ratchet felt his optics widen when the full meaning of the message became clear to him. Optimus quirked his optic ridges at him. So, the Prime hadn't turned his comlink on. He'd have to ask later what all that was about.

"Ironhide says there's an incoming radio transmission for us on the secured channel," Ratchet explained.

"From who?"

"He didn't say, but he sounds quite enthusiastic. It might be 'cons. You never know with Ironhide."

"True," Optimus chuckled and started his long gait towards the communications room. "but I do hope it's happier news than cons contacting us."

"Yes, because that would mean they have hacked to our system and probably know where our base is too," Ratchet muttered. He didn't like the silent treatment the Decepticons were giving them. He was sure they were up to something – by the pit, he knew even Optimus felt it! They were all on the edge, just waiting for the first shot.

They had built their own version of the human radio after Optimus had sent his message to space in hopes of contact from their allies. It was also used to send and receive long distance messages between continents in case of a con sighting. It was fast, it was secure, it was Autobot made and it was easy to use.

First Ratchet had been skeptical about giving humans some of their technology, but in the end he understood Optimus' logic in his decision. There were only four of them, five if he included Aurora, so there was no way of them searching and patrolling every continent. They needed the help of the humans.

When he arrived in the communications room he was surprised. Not in his wildest dreams had he dared to hope Autobots would connect to them from space!

"It's the twins!" Ironhide commented the moment he and Optimus stepped in. He was currently operating the radio and seemed to be happier and more enthusiastic than usual.

"Mudflap and Skids?" Ratchet hoped more than asked. He didn't want to think about the other option.

"Not quite," a dry voice commented through the radio connection.

Ratchet felt the cold hand of fate clench around his spark. He hoped to Primus his audios were malfunctioning, but the rational side of him instantly knew it was not so. There was only one bot who could sound so utterly self-centered, arrogant, vain and annoying during a normal conversation, and he usually didn't come alone.

"Sunstreaker," he growled and could feel his lip plates grinding together. _Those_ twins. He should have known from Ironhide's happiness it wouldn't be Mudflap and Skids. Ironhide liked violence and twins liked violence. They got along well.

He and the twins, though – not so much.

"Ratchet the Hatchet! Funny, I just knew you'd be there to welcome us!" Ratchet could well imagine the cocky grin plastering on Sunstreaker's faceplates. Oh, he was probably enjoying this with every fiber of his being.

"Is Sideswipe there too?" he just had to ask, although he knew for sure that the twins were always together. Nothing could bring them apart. Well, maybe his wrench could. He could try that.

"Hello, Ratchie," a new voice spoke through the radio. "Did you miss us? I sure as pit missed you! And from Sunny's longing gaze I know he did too!"

Ratchet could imagine the red bot standing behind his yellow counterpart's back, grinning towards the radio while Earth loomed on the ship's screen. Oh, he could imagine it so easily. He felt his servos clenching, hoping that his wrench would be nearby when they landed.

"Oh, yes. My wrench and I have both missed you," Ratchet muttered dryly. In truth he could have managed a few more years without the bothersome duo. This would mean many nights without recharge, because he'd be worrying about what the twins might do next.

They always meant trouble. And usually they meant trouble specifically for him.

"Ha! I've learned some new tricks! If you'll ask nicely I might even teach some to you," Sideswipe promised him and Ratchet could hear Sunstreaker chuckle in the background.

"Somehow I doubt that," Ratchet muttered and glanced at the Prime. They needed a brig and he fragging hoped Optimus realized that too.

Too bad the Prime had his attention on the radio rather than Ratchet's pleading glance. He even seemed happy and relieved.

"You don't believe us! Hey, we blew up a planet a while back! With Decepticons on it!" Sunstreaker bragged.

"You _what_?" Ironhide yelled and almost fell on his aft. Ratchet shared his feelings. The twins had _what_? Blowing up a planet wasn't a good thing!

"We are just that good," Sunstreaker commented.

"Oh yeah," his brother agreed.

Maybe they should build two brigs? Keeping the twins separated might make them less dangerous. Together they were unstoppable.

Back on Cybertron, the twins had basically lived in the brig, because Optimus had to discipline them for their actions constantly. Actually, every time they managed to get out from there they were almost instantly sent back in. The twins had no respect for basic rules. They did respect Optimus Prime, though. That was probably why they were still fighting with them instead of running loose throughout the galaxies.

"Why the slag would you blow up a fraggin' planet!" Ironhide shouted at the radio. "Even I haven't done that!" Ratchet _almost_ commented that Ironhide _almost_ had, but decided it was best to keep his mouth shut. Reminding Ironhide of their failed missions wasn't a smart thing to do if you wanted to remain online.

"Decepticons had a base on it! Would you rather have us dead and the Decepticons running loose?" Sideswipe yelled back at him. Ironhide was about to continue the yelling match, but was interrupted.

"Shockwave was there," Sunstreaker offered as an explanation. The whole room became quiet except for the quiet humming of the radio and computers.

Ratchet felt his head jerk up, along with Optimus' and Irohide's.

Shockwave? They had hoped he had died back on Cybertron, but, of course, they couldn't be that lucky. Fraggin' pit, Shockwave...

The medic still remembered the victims he had treated during the war. Every faceplate, every injury they had sustained, was burned into his memory core. Shockwave's victims were the worst. Not only did the Decepticon enjoy his victims pain, he often didn't even offline them. He tortured them, to the point where their minds were shattered and nothing but the mech or femme's empty shell was left.

Those had been the first and only times Ratchet had hoped he had the strength to offline his patients. It would have been merciful.

"Did you kill him?" Ratchet had to ask, before Optimus could voice over his own concern for the matter. Ratchet could feel Optimus staring at him, most likely surprised by the amount of venom in his voice. The medic didn't care. If there was one bot he hoped he could offline himself, it was Shockwave.

"Slagger got away before we could get even close," they heard Sunstreaker growl. "They had some sort of new prototype weapon, but we blew it up with the planet. However, Shockwave might have escaped with the blueprints."

"What kind of weapon?" Optimus asked, worry staining his voice. Ironhide seemed interested too, but then again, he was always interested if weapons were concerned.

"We don't know, it kind of blew up before we had a chance to see it."

"Meaning you were too busy to turn the place into a real version of the pit before realizing it might be useful to actually know what the weapon was capable of," Ratchet muttered. He knew the twins. When battlerage came over them, they didn't care about anything else beside killing as many Decepticons as they could. That was why they were rarely sent alone in the missions. Someone had to watch over them and see they wouldn't go overboard and forget what the mission originally had been about.

"Hey, that's not fair! We were doing a very good job, but then... Prowl just went rigid. We had to fight our way out while carrying him," Sideswipe explained, everyone hearing the worry in his voice. Worry was a thing the twins rarely did.

"Prowl is there?" Optimus had his gaze firmly on the radio. Ratchet could practically see the processor in his head working on the new information. He wished he could somehow see in the Prime's head, to know what was going on.

"Yeah, and he isn't doing good. What in the name of Primus happened to Jazz? We knew Prowl and Jazz shared a spark bond, but I've never seen such a violent reaction! He still doesn't talk, and only drinks energon when we force him to!"

"Jazz is dead, isn't he?" Sunstreaker interrupted his brother.

"Sunny!"

"We're twins, Sides'! We of all bots should know how the spark bond works! There's only one reason why Prowl would act like he is and that's because the bond broke. Am I wrong?" The last question was clearly meant for Optimus.

"You... are correct. Jazz... he fought bravely," the large bot admitted sighing. "We all miss him greatly."

Ratchet glanced at the mech and made a note to have a talk with Optimus later on. Lately, Optimus had been unusually quiet, reserved, and alone. He still was mourning over Jazz, Ratchet was sure of it. They all were, and everyone was coping with it differently.

Ironhide had became more annoyed than usual, and snapped at anybody who was brave enough to actually say anything to him. Bumblebee had _cried_, after learning the habit from Sam and Mikaela. Ratchet hadn't had the spark to point out to him that bots usually didn't leak from their eyes. Ratchet had just busied himself over work. There was always something new to learn, something new he needed in his med-bay and something he could do.

Optimus on the other hand... Ratchet hadn't seen much of him. He was busy negotiating with the humans and planning their course of actions.

A thought hit the medic. Maybe their leader hadn't had the time to mourn properly. And now, if Prowl was coming...

He would be a clear reminder of the fact that Jazz was gone.

"Who killed him? We hope you offlined the slagger!" Sideswipe snarled.

"Megatron."

"Is he offline?" Sunstreaker demanded, undeterred by the fact that this was the leader of the Decepticons he was talking about.

"Oh yeah, the slagger is gone," Ironhide answered and flexed his cannons. "You should've seen his faceplates when the All Spark was thrust into his spark chamber."

"How is Prowl?" Optimus interrupted the conversation. From his stance Ratchet could see Optimus was beyond worried.

For a while they didn't receive an answer, and they waited in tense silence.

"He is... He is. He does nothing. He just sits on his aft all day. We've tried to get a reaction from him, any reaction, but it's no good. He barely even recharges. And he only drinks energon if we force it on his mouthplates."

"I'll prepare the med-bay for him," Ratchet said. Healing a bot who had suffered a broken spark bond was hard, but not impossible. "What is your estimated arrival time?"

"Sooner than you'd think!"

No, Ratchet hadn't missed the twins. Not at all.


	5. Chapter 5: Fragile

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: SammieValAlxJas (thank youuuuu!)

Rating: T

Pairing: ?

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU, OOC(?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,780

A/N: Whoah! I hope each and everyone of you had a nice Christmas and New Year (for those of you who don't celebrate them – I hope you had nice holidays!). I got a Transformers t-shirt from my boyfriend as a Christmas present. :3 (And his mother bought me Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony. XD)

As you may have (or may not have) noticed, this chapter is unbetaed, so if you see any mistakes or this chapter just seems weird, feel free to tell it to me. :)

As for my update rate goes – I try to update at least once in a month, but since university combined with Cystic Fibrosis can be bitchy, I can't promise you anything. ._. But I definitely try my best!

Edit(3/8/2012): Now betaed! Yay!

oOo

**Chapter 5: Fragile**

Aurora was intent on staring at her cup of blue...something (quite frankly she had forgotten the name of it as soon as Ratchet had said it) and not staring at the yellow "Autobot" who was sharing the room with her. She was beyond nervous. Before, when she had been with the medic, things had been awkward and new, but she hadn't been afraid. Well, at first she had been, she had to admit that to herself, but Ratchet emitted a certain aura of calmness. She had somewhat relaxed in his company when he had started fixing her faulty vocal processors.

And there was the fact that he was a medic. As a part of medical personnel herself, she had the firm belief of not hurting patients nor any living thing on purpose. So pesrhaps it was only natural for Aurora to believe Ratchet wasn't there to hurt, but to help. To heal.

The others were a whole different thing though.

She wanted to believe they were all good, but her memory served otherwise. The yellow one had hurt her. He had shot her. He had kicked her, hit her and tried to kill her.

A small voice in the back of her head commented that so had Dave. And he had actually killed her. Aurora tried to shut up that little voice. No, Dave was just... he just... Sometimes he just couldn't help himself. It was because she wasn't good enough. It was because she had done something. And Dave could be sweet and caring too! He just...

"He just has anger management issues," she whispered, not realizing she had spoken aloud until the yellow bot reacted to her words.

"Ratchet? He can be scary sometimes, but he means well!" he commented. Aurora felt her new "eyes" widen. Why had she talked out loud? Now he was clearly expecting a conversation! She hoped she could walk so she could escape the situation. Hiding under a table sounded like a good idea.

Somehow, a percentage of how well a table could hide her popped up. It wasn't very high. She discarded the thought and tried to think of something else. Could she fit into a medical cabinet? She dismissed that thought too. She was huge now. There was no way she could fit into those cabinets. No place to hide.

Aurora hoped she had some sort of superpower – like invisibility – but no such luck.

"Uhm, I don't know if you remember much, but I'm sorry for everything I did," the yellow bot continued, voice barely audible and filled with remorse. "I think I've fought for too long to remember that not everyone is an enemy."

Aurora slowly lifted her eyes from the blue something, which strangely had tasted like motor oil smelled, and faced the Autobot. She could literally feel her heart, or whatever she now had, melt. The look on his face was ashamed and his whole posture screamed crestfallen. The fear Aurora had felt before didn't disappear wholly, but now it seemed like a thing she could conquer. The room didn't suffocate her as it had before and she didn't feel the urgency to dive under a table and scream for the police to come and help her out of here.

Dave had always accused that she was too quick to forgive people. Perhaps he had been right, perhaps she was a spineless human being who couldn't stand up for herself even if she tried, but the second she had seen those big, bright blue orbs staring sadly at her, she couldn't blame him for anything. He looked like a sad puppy who had been kicked around and then abandoned to a trash can by his owners. Aurora didn't have the heart to blame him for anything. Not when those innocent eyes were staring at her, at least. It reminded her of how children looked at her in the clinic, begging her not to give them the flu shots.

"You are quite young, aren't you?" she asked and tried to remember his name. It came to her easier than she would have thought, but then again, he looked like his Earth counterpart. The yellow paint with occasional black added to the shape of his body just screamed it. Even the song "Flight of the Bumblebee" started playing in her head.

Bumblebee blinked at her question and cocked his head before looking at himself and then her.

"I'm not a sparkling anymore," he answered, looking a bit confused. "Do I look like a sparkling?"

Aurora had no idea what a sparkling was and decided that the best course of action would be just admitting it. In the end, Ratchet hadn't forbidden her not to tell of her origins and there were so few of the Autobots that keeping a secret from them wouldn't be easy. Sooner or later her lack of knowledge would show. In her opinion, better now than later.

"What is a sparkling?"

The reaction she got from Bumblebee wasn't something she had expected to receive. His whole face seemed to freeze in a look of utter surprise and for a while no sound came out from him. One blink. Two blinks.

"_What's a sparkling?"_ he sputtered, clearly not believing what he was hearing. "You're a femme and you don't know what a sparkling is? Are your memory cores damaged or something? You really should tell Ratchet about that, because I'm sure he'd fix them in an astrosecond!" The mere thought of her not knowing this subject in particular seemed to agitate Bumblebee. Well, he was in for a shock then...

"Uhm, well, I'm actually a human," Aurora explained and tried to prepare herself for the incoming question barrage that was sure to follow. In stead she received silence. Utter and complete silence.

Bumblebee was staring at her like he was actually seeing Aurora for the first time. She could practically hear the gears turning in his head, trying to make sense of what she had just told him. And nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared her for Bumblebee's answer.

"Wow," he whispered, clearly in awe, "that's amazing."

Now it was Aurora's time to be very, very puzzled. Was that it? No questions, no doubting, no calling her a lunatic? She couldn't help but to feel that her impression of Bumblebee being young was true. He believed her without a question which led to the fact that he was being very trusting and a bit naive – a trait children usually had.

"You – you believe me?" Aurora had to confirm it, she couldn't believe her own ears. Ratchet had been so hard to convince and she had prepared herself to receive the same treatment from others, especially if Ratchet wasn't there to back her up.

Bumblebee answered to her with a sheepish grin that screamed mischief. It reminded Aurora a lot of her older brother, especially when she had caught him with a hand inside a cookie jar.

"I checked from Ratchet. We have an internal communication link," he admitted. Aurora rolled her eyes. Of course they did. Then again, she should've known. These were Autobots that had faced war. Naivety and trusting didn't fit very well with war.

"And here I thought you'd believe me just because you have a pure heart," she sighed dramatically. Then again, if you looked at the bright side of things, this saved her the effort of actually convincing Bumblebee to believe her.

"As I said to you earlier, I'm not a sparkling anymore," Bumblebee repeated his earlier statement and even puffed his chest out. "I'm a full grown mech!" He seemed to ponder his own statement for a moment, because he added, "Although I'd like to be taller. Like Sunstreaker."

"Well, I think you look just fine the way you are now," Aurora said while nodding. This made the Autobot in question squirm and switch his gaze to somewhere other than her while muttering a barely audible thanks. Aurora couldn't help but to smile at this. While maybe not a sparkling, which she now suspected was equivalent to a human child, she still thought Bumblebee was young – perhaps not a teenager but rather a young adult.

"Youlooknicetoo" statement brought Aurora out from her thoughts and for a moment she couldn't do anything else than to just stare at the yellow, who was now shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously, Autobot. She looked nice. Nice.

Aurora hadn't really thought about until now – she had no idea what she looked like. She didn't even know how she was supposed to look. She was human after all! She knew what her human self looked like: long, naturally blonde hair, green eyes, long limbs and annoyingly high cheekbones. For a moment she could recall the empty look her eyes had had when she had seen her body.

She swallowed and tried her best to discard the thought. There was no going back. This was what she was now. This was what she should learn to live with, no matter how hard it would be. This was her second chance.

There was no going back for her.

"Is everything alright? Should I not have said that?" Bumblebee's worried voice reached her ears. She shook her head. No, she probably didn't have ears anymore. Aurora slowly lifted her hand, which looked so alien, so new, so metallic, and briefly touched the side of her face. Her new face.

No, definitely no ears there. And no hair either.

"At least I don't have to buy shampoo anymore," she concluded and then remembered the existence of a very agitated looking mech sharing the room with her. "Oh, sorry, I just... This is all very new to me. I mean, I don't even know what I look like let alone how I function." She let out a small laugh. "All I can do right now is talk, sit and drink blue motor oil and I don't even know what I look like while doing so!" A tinge of panic had crept into her voice. How was she going to pull this off? She was an alien now. She was alien even among aliens!

Aurora felt like her head was going to explode.

The sudden sensation of touch stopped her raging thoughts. Bumblebee's hand was resting on her shoulder, while the said Autobot stood proudly by her side. His smile was encouraging.

"We are all here to help you. I know it's not going to be easy, but I'm sure you'll learn everything you need to know in due time," Bumblebee reassured her. "You are one of us now."

She was sure she was going to cry. The kindness Bumblebee radiated was one of a kind – Aurora was sure she had never met a person quite like him. In just few words he had managed to calm her down and made her feel like she was welcome. She wasn't alone.

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice quivering a bit. "It means a lot to me to actually hear that." And it did. It boosted her confidence and the small voice in the back of her head whispering that it was futile to even try had been silenced. It would take time, it would take effort and it definitely would not be easy, but Aurora was going to do her best and help the Autobots.

After all – she was one now. However strange it was.

"You know, I could try and find a mirror for you if you want to know how you look like..." Bumblebee suggested while surveying the room. "I'm sure Ratchet has at least one somewhere in here."

"You're sure he doesn't mind you looking through his things?" Aurora had to voice out her suspicion. Of course she was curious of how she looked – she was a woman after all – but she also knew how important it was for a med-bay to be in exact order.

"He won't know if you don't tell him!" He was grinning now, eyes full of mischief. His grin faltered though when Aurora wasn't smiling back at him. She felt a pang of regret for bringing his mood down.

"I know you mean good, but this is a med-bay. It's... it's a medic's sanctum. Everything needs to be in exact order, in exact place, right where it should be or it might cost someone's life. I don't want something like that to happen just because of my vanity," Aurora explained. She felt like she needed to.

"Wow, I guess I never really thought about it that way," Bumblebee mumbled, his look now thoughtful. "It makes sense, though."

"I'm a nurse. Or rather, was," she continued, "I know how important it is for a doctor to have his things in right order. Especially in dire situations."

"Yeah... And Ratchet's wrench hurts," Bumblebee sighed. Aurora raised her eyebrows or whatever the equivalent now was. Did Bumblebee imply what she thought he was implying?

"Does Ratchet hit you with his wrench?" she asked slowly. The idea, the mere idea, was... she didn't know what it was. A feeling she recognized as anger started boiling in her guts. He hit his patients? _His patients._

The small voice in the back of her head was back. Dave had hit her. Multiple times. How was this any different? How? Why wasn't it acceptable if someone other than Dave did the hitting on someone other than her?

Hitting your patients was just wrong. It was wrong. Medics were there to _heal_. Not to inflict pain.

Yet, when Dave hit her she just swallowed it up. She accepted it. How was it any different?

_How was it any different?_

"He only hits us if we've done something incredibly stupid. I know he doesn't admit it, but it's because he cares. And it doesn't hurt that much! It's like... Oh! I know! It's like a slap in the back of the head from your girlfriend when you've said something really, really stupid! Sam receives them constantly from Mikaela! Not that Ratchet is my girlfriend. Or anyone's girlfriend. I mean, he's a mech and not girly at all. He's a very manly mech. Why am I not shutting up?"

"He shouldn't hit you. He shouldn't!" Aurora whispered frantically. It was not right. It was not right for a medic to do so. A medic was there to heal. _To heal._

"Who shouldn't I hit and why is that?" Ratchet's voice boomed from the entrance. Both Aurora's and Bumblebee's head snapped in his direction. The medic in question looked puzzled and beyond annoyed. Even Aurora could tell that he was tense. The way he walked in and slammed the data pad onto the table just screamed 'don't you dare speak to me now'.

"What kind of a medic hits his own patients?" Aurora hissed at Ratchet. He stopped in mid-motion and looked oddly like a fish while gaping at her with his mouth open.

"What?" he managed to blurt out.

"What kind of a sorry excuse of a medic hits his own patients?" she repeated, her voice rising with every word until she was almost screaming at him. Doctors didn't hurt their patients, medics didn't hurt their patients!

"'Bee?" Ratchet turned his gaze to the yellow mech, seeming to not understand what the situation was about.

"Well, you do hit us with your wrench from time to time," he explained while looking at Aurora with wide eyes. Neither of them had probably expected her to be so worked up about it. Even she didn't quite understand what made her so mad.

"'Bee, would you come over here, please," Ratchet motioned to himself, not answering Aurora's accusations or her glare at all. It made her even more irritated. Bumblebee glanced at her and even though she shook her head and pleaded with her eyes to him not to go, he made his way to the medic. He came to regret it though, when the wrench connected with the back of his head with a mighty 'BONK'.

"OW!" Bumblebee yelled and shielded his head with his hands in case of another hit. "What in the name of the pit, Ratchet?!"

Aurora knew she was making the fish impersonation now. What the hell? He had hit Bumblebee right in front of her! She had at least expected there to be a bunch of excuses of why Ratchet was hurting his patients and comrades, but no. He just hit him. Just like that.

He was even worse than Dave. Dave always had a reason. He always did.

"State your injuries," Ratchet ordered, like nothing had happened, wrench still in his hand. Aurora still couldn't quite believe what she had seen. The sound had been awful! And from the painful expression on Bumblebee's face, it had hurt!

"What? Fragging bottomless pit, I did nothing to deserve that," the yellow mech muttered and rubbed his head. "That will leave a dent."

"Stop sounding like Sunstreaker. State your injuries or I'll hit you again." Ratchet was dead serious – he still had the wrench and clearly he was not afraid to use it. Aurora hoped she knew how to move. She could stop this somehow!

Would he beat him until Bumblebee was begging to stop? Would he beat him until Bumblebee couldn't even beg him to stop?

"My doorwing is misplaced! You knew that already!" Bumblebee complained. "You can see it with your bare optics!"

Aurora was having a hard time following the conversation. It made no sense. It made no sense at all. Nothing made sense.

"Is that all?" Ratchet pressed on.

"You know perfectly well it is all!"

"That's all. You can go now," the medic said and pointed his wrench at the door. Bumblebee looked like he had no idea what was going on. And then there was the fact that his doorwing was still hanging at an odd angle.

"But... my doorwing!"

"Stop sounding like Sunstreaker!"

"I don't sound like Sunstreaker!"

"Yes you do! He always uses that whiny voice when there's a scratch or a dent or anything and then he comes to me to get it fixed and just complains and complains and _complains_! I can't stand it!" Ratchet hit his wrench on the desk with another might 'BONK'. Bumblebee clearly was grateful it wasn't his head this time.

" I'll come back later," Bumblebee mumbled and glared at the wrench on his way out. Aurora almost yelled at him to not to leave her with Ratchet, but Ratchet's intense gaze stopped her from doing so. She couldn't resist a shiver of fear coursing through her. He was going to hit her. She was sure of it.

"Who hurt you?"

It was a simple question, yet Aurora could not bring herself to answer to it. It caught her off guard. She hadn't expected his voice to be coated with concern. She hadn't expected his gaze to be so intense, so full of worry.

His character made no sense to her.

"No one," she whispered, not taking her eyes of the green mech standing behind the desk. She could try to use her legs if he came closer. She could try to dart to the door.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he stated. She didn't believe it. Perhaps she wasn't as foolish as she had thought she was. Dave had hurt her. She would never let anyone do it again.

"Like I'm going to believe that," she answered.

"I hit them with a wrench to remind them not to act like idiots."

"That's not the right way," Aurora argued. A medic should not hurt his patients.

"He didn't receive any injuries."

"What?"

"You heard 'Bee stating his injuries. His head suffered no trauma. It only stings and perhaps leaves a dent. It's only a reminder and with mechs as blockheaded as these are, it's the only reminder they actually understand and remember. And remembering your mistakes is essential on the battlefield. You get no second chances there."

Aurora closed her mouth. She wanted to argue with his logic, she did, but...

She had never been in a war. The closest thing to a war she had seen was in Mission City and she had just been an innocent bystander. Her brother was a soldier and somehow she could see him accepting Ratchet's logic. Why was it so hard for her to do so?

Why was it alright for Dave to hit her?

"Who hurt you?"

Again, that simple, so simple question. It would be so easy to tell him – to slip the name from her tongue. Eight years. Eight years of abuse. It would take only one second the utter the name.

"Why do you think someone has?"

Dave would go to prison for murder. He might even face a death sentence.

"I'm a medic, I'm supposed to know."

"No one," she lied, again. Dave didn't deserve prison. He wasn't a bad man. He just had a quick temper.

She was lying again.

"You do realize I can easily hack into your memory core and just find out by myself? I'm giving you chance to tell me yourself," Ratchet sighed, clearly expecting her to co-operate. But Aurora just couldn't do it. She just couldn't say it. It would be so easy. Four letters. Four simple letters.

"I did," she blurted out. She always had been a lousy liar.

"You hurt you yourself?"

"Yes." Why was she still lying for him? Why was she still lying for Dave?

"That's a lie and you know that I know."

"No it isn't." Why couldn't she say it? Was it because she had deserved all the beatings? Had she deserved them?

The small voice believed she had. Yeah, she probably had. Dave had only tried to make her a better human being. It was her fault she hadn't succeeded in it.

"Yes it is." Ratchet seemed to be relentless in his pursuit.

"Why are you pestering me?" she wailed.

"Because if you don't let it out, you are going to collapse." It wasn't a question, a guess or a plead. It was a statement. A fact. Spoken with years of experience.

"Then I'll collapse."

"There's a problem though," Ratchet interrupted her, "I'm not letting you."


	6. Chapter 6: Regrets

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: Not betaed, so probably full of mistakes

Rating: T

Pairing: ?

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU, OOC(?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 4,636

A/N: Don't kill me! ;_; I know it's been ages since the last update, but real life decided I need to go to the university and actually try and learn something while I'm there. ._. Bummer! And oh yes, in case it isn't self explanatory:

.:Comlink speech.:.

oOo

**Chapter 6: Regrets**

_Femmes. _Ratchet was grinding his mouthplates. _Damn them all to the pit. _After stating that he wasn't going to let her collapse, she had just outright refused to answer his questions anymore. The infuriating femme was giving him _the silent treatment_! He couldn't even remember the last time someone had done that to him, although he had a vague memory of it being Bumblebee.

But by the All Spark was it infuriating! After a few failed attempts of getting an answer from Aurora he had given up. If she wanted to play this game, so be it. He had better things to do.

Like setting the med-bay ready to receive Prowl.

The thought of the strategist made Ratchet's spark ache. He himself had never suffered a sparkshock, but he had seen and treated Autobots who had. Most of them didn't survive and the rest never fully healed. The pain of losing a sparkfriend or sparkmate never went away.

Ratchet had to admit he felt somewhat guilty. When Jazz had died he hadn't even thought about Prowl. He had thought about himself: Why he wasn't good enough to heal him, why couldn't he protect his team mates, his friends and allies, and most importantly – why didn't he stop Jazz?

The moment the First Lieutenant had voiced his plan Ratchet had known he wouldn't survive. One on one with Megatron? Only Optimus could pull that one off and come out alive. Yet nor Ratchet or Ironhide had tried to stop him. At that moment they had needed to get the All Spark and Sam to safety.

Ratchet still remembered the final look Jazz had given them. The usual mischievous glint in his optics had been replaced by sheer determination. _Ah ain't got no regrets_, he had stated via the comlink and offered them a bittersweet smile before he had slid his visor into place with final ominous 'click'. But it had been Jazz's decision and he had stood behind it.

Until the very bitter end.

He couldn't resist a sigh coming out. Treating Prowl would be difficult, time consuming and the outcome could be anything. All would depend on Prowl and his will to live. All that Ratchet could do was to provide comfort and be there for his friend. He hoped that would be enough. For some reason he doubted it.

"Are you... alright?" the small voice behind him asked very quietly jerking Ratchet out from his gloomy thoughts. He blinked and shook his head. For a while he had forgot that the femme existed and required his attention too.

"Just thinking about lost comrades," he admitted before turning to face Aurora. So, she had cracked and was willing to speak to him now. That had to be a good sign. Right now she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there with him. Ratchet couldn't blame her though. He had been quite relentless with his questioning and his quick temper didn't aid him.

But frag it if it didn't annoy him to no end that the femme didn't just spit out the truth. She had been very close to do it, Ratchet was sure of that. Her optics had darted to the door and back to him and her mouthplates had tried to voice the name out, but in the end she couldn't do it.

So that was another task on his to-do-list. _Get the femme to tell the truth. Help Prowl heal. Don't offline the twins. _His gaze landed on the empty energon cup on his desk. _Get more energon. _

Somehow he suspected finding more energon would be the easiest part.

He realized he was staring at Aurora when the femme started to squirm under his gaze and was apparently finding the floor very interesting. She was either afraid of him or ashamed of something. But at least she had talked to him.

"Look, I know I can be a bit hot headed sometimes, but I would never hurt a patient intentionally. I meant it when I said I could hack into your memory cores," Ratchet started and couldn't help but to notice how the femmes optics shot up and started to dart around wildly, "but I won't do it, because ethically it would be just wrong. I hope in time you'll start to trust me and tell me yourself."

She didn't lift her gaze from the floor, but she did nod. Well, it was a start.

Throwing an evaluating glance around the room he realized it would get cramped in the med-bay with both Aurora and Prowl. And he had no way of granting either of them some privacy. He had three berths in the room, but he hoped to Primus he wouldn't need the third one in a very long time. Two patients in a cramped space was enough for him. He'd have to point out to Optimus that if their numbers were to grow any more, they needed a bigger med-bay.

"Is someone else coming here?" Aurora asked him after a while.

"How did you guess?" He frowned. He hadn't mentioned anything about Prowl or anyone else coming. Had he?

"You've been pacing around a lot and setting equipment ready," she explained and smiled shyly. "I just put two and two together." That was true. He had been setting some basic items near the second berth: energon, his basic repair-kit and sedatives, just in case.

"Well, yes, I guess I was quite self-explanatory," he admitted and paused for a while. It wouldn't make sense to try to keep the arrival of Prowl and the twins a secret. Although he had every intention of twins not stepping into the med-bay. Ever. "We have an injured Autobot arriving shortly. Prowl."

"Can I help?" The offer came so abruptly Ratchet wasn't sure he had heard correctly. Really? Aurora had stayed with them for less than 24 hours, yet when the opportunity to make use of herself presented itself, she was ready to seize it.

Ratchet glanced at her. She seemed eager and her tone of voice had stated that she didn't merely ask because she thought she was supposed to, but because she really wanted to help. Then again, she had been a nurse. It wasn't a profession you chose to help someone because you thought you had to, but because you wanted to.

He pondered on it for a while. It wouldn't be bad to have someone around and help him, but Aurora was still new to her Autobot-body, not to mention her mental state probably wasn't the most stable right now...

"I'd rather not have you move around just yet," he concluded. It wasn't a lie, but not the whole truth either. He didn't want Aurora to move around just yet, mostly because she had trouble even drinking from a cup. Teaching her to walk would be time consuming and right now he didn't have time. Prowl and the twins were on their way and if he knew twins at all, they would be true to their word and be on Earth sooner than he'd thought they would.

"Oh..." Aurora did sound disappointed. Ratchet grimaced, before his processors came up with an idea she actually could help him with.

"But you could try and help me to figure out how to get you and Prowl some privacy," he presented. His processors were blank. Well, on that subject at least. He had tons of other things occupying them though. For example how to offline the twins without Optimus noticing.

Aurora seemed to be happy to help though. It took her only a klik to come up with something.

"Don't you have any curtains you could use?" she asked while tapping her chinplates with her finger.

"This is a military base," Ratchet pointed out while raising his optic ridge. "They don't really grant us funds for interior decoration."

Aurora sent a dry look towards him.

"That's not what I meant. Hospitals have curtains around beds, so patients can have some privacy while staying in, so I don't understand why you can't have them too," she muttered before her optics gleamed with an idea. "Ha! Do they have parachutes? Like extra ones they don't need right now?" She seemed to very proud of her idea. Ratchet didn't follow her logic straight away, mostly because he was still thinking how to offline the fragging twins, but he realized the idea soon enough.

"You mean use the canvas from them?" he checked to see if they had thought the about same thing.

"If someone doesn't need them at the moment, why not? I mean, I'm not bothered if I share a room with someone, but if you think they are needed..." She shrugged her shoulders. Ratchet thought about if for a while. It would probably do good for Aurora to have company, especially company that could teach her how to be an Autobot, but right now Prowl wasn't the right person to do it.

"I'd rather put Prowl on a room of his own and have someone constantly keeping an eye on him, but I'll have to work with what I've got," he stated and decided to contact Will as soon as he was able. The canvas from the parachutes would be better than nothing.

"Is this Prowl dangerous?" Aurora sounded worried and was again fidgeting her servos. She was easily frightened, but Ratchet couldn't count it as her fault.

"Only to himself," Ratchet sighed.

"What's wrong with him? Is he sick?"

"You could probably call it a sickness, but it is a bit more complicated than that." Everything that had anything to do with sparks was always complicated. Explaining it to a person who 24 hours ago didn't even have a spark would take a lot of time and effort. He didn't quite have the patience to do it at the moment. Every time he thought of Prowl he started to think of Jazz and that last bittersweet smile. It was haunting.

_Ah ain't got no regrets._

Maybe he didn't, but Ratchet had.

"Want to try and explain?" Aurora's voice seemed to come from somewhere far away. Ratchet shook his head to clear his vision from Jazz's final moments. There was no point to dwell in past. He needed to concentrate on the moment.

"You are awfully curious," he evaded Aurora's question. How could you even explain something like sparkbonding to a human? They had nothing of the like.

"I'm a nurse," Aurora stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You needn't be anymore," he pointed out.

"I guess that's true... But... Do you have professions? I mean... What do I do?" She seemed to be at loss and spread her hands. "Look at me, I can't be a warrior or a soldier like Bumblebee and the rest of you are! I don't even know how to hold a gun!" Ratchet didn't have the spark to point out that Autobot's didn't usually use portable weapons. It would confuse the femme even more.

"Well, what do you want to do? If there was only one thing you would be able to do, what would it be?" he asked. If this conversation would take his mind of Prowl and Jazz's death, he would gladly have it. It didn't take long for Aurora to produce an answer.

"Call my parents, I guess. I mean, they think I'm dead!" If possible her already big optics became even bigger. "Oh crap, they really think I'm dead. I must call them right away! Do you have a phone here somewhere?"

Ratchet grimaced and thought about his wording for a long time before placing his servo on her shoulder. She wouldn't like this. She wouldn't like this at all.

"I... I don't think that's a good idea," he started but wasn't able to finish before Aurora started to yell at him.

"What do you mean? I must tell them I'm not dead! Mom must be heartbroken! She cried for over a week when my brother left to war, I can't let her think that I'm dead when I'm not!" Ratchet noticed she was circulating air at growing speed, which meant her core temperatures were rising. That wasn't a good sign. He needed to get her calm down or otherwise she might break something.

"And what are you going to say to them? That you are 'a huge robot' now?" he pointed out. Well, that didn't receive the hoped effect. Aurora slapped his hand away and he was sure that if she had been able she would've been standing and glaring at him with all her might. Probably even poked at his breastplate. The glare's effect was somewhat diminished when she did it sitting on the berth, but it was still pretty good. Fragging femmes knew how to make death glares.

"Yes! That I am alive and I'm going to visit them as soon as I'm able!" she said defiantly. "And you can't stop me." Ratchet decided it was best not to point out that he could and he would if he had to. He didn't want to, though. He wanted to get the femme to trust him, not fear him.

"Aurora..." he used his best soothing voice, but it didn't seem to help. Then again, it hadn't helped even when Bumblebee was a sparkling and crying for comfort.

"What? You are going to let me visit them aren't you?" There was a glimmer of wetness near her optic. He groaned mentally. She was going to leak from her eyes. When had she learned to do that?

"I'm not the one you can ask that question," he stated. That one would be Optimus. And right now Optimus was probably busy. Nowadays he always was.

"Then who is?" She was beginning to be hysterical. He briefly wondered did he have any sedatives in his hidden compartment. He hoped he did.

"Optimus Prime."

"Then take me to this Optimus Prime," she demanded, then realized she wasn't able to move anywhere. "Or rather, get him here!" If the situation hadn't been serious, Ratchet would have been amused by the demands of the smaller femme.

"Aurora..." he tried again. How would he be able to explain she couldn't see her parents?

"Don't try to calm me down! I need to call my parents!"

"If you don't calm down something is going to break and I have to fix you," he explained calmly. He had tried to take a scan to make sure she hadn't already, but she didn't stay still enough for it to succeed.

"I don't care!" she argued. Ratchet was starting to lose his temper. Yes, he understood that humans had very strong emotional ties with each other, but sometimes you needed to think rationally, not emotionally.

"You should!" Breaking yourself intentionally was just plain stupid. Then again, maybe the femme didn't realize how her new body worked. Well, she definitely would notice the danger of overheating when the wiring wouldn't be able to handle the heat anymore. Enter glitches! And then he'd have to fix her of course.

Why no one ever listened to him?

"Well I don't!"

Fragging pit was she stubborn!

"Aurora, you can't contact your parents!" Perhaps it was the finality in his voice or the fact that he was now yelling too, but the message finally seemed to reach Aurora's audios.

"Then at least tell my why!" she pleaded. She was leaking. Why did she have to be leaking?

"We are top secret that's why! And at war! Do you realize what would happen to your parents were the Decepticons to find out you have connections to them? Do you think they'd care that they are innocent? Do you think your parents could protect themselves against them?" he tried to explain the facts in a calm manner, but his temper had already got the best of him. He winced after he realized he had yelled the last lines. But finally Aurora seemed to understand his point. It didn't make her stop the annoying leaking though. Actually, it was increasing.

"Could... could I at least tell them I'm alive?" she whispered and clutched his servo. "Please?" Ratchet shook his head. He didn't want to be the bringer of bad news and it did pain him to make the femme sad, but he just didn't think there was any way to make Aurora's request work without endangering either them or her parents.

"And would they believe you after seeing your body? Would they be happy with just one phone call telling them you are alive and nothing else? Would they be satisfied with that? Never seeing their daughter again, yet knowing she's out there somewhere?" At that moment he hated the fact that he was right. It would be so much easier to march to Optimus' office and tell that Aurora wanted to contact her parents. But the rational part in him knew it wasn't safe to do so.

"No..." she admitted. "No they wouldn't."

"Are you seeing my point?" He secretly wished he could have let Optimus handle the situation, but the mech had so much on his servos right now that it was better if Ratchet didn't increase his working burden any more.

"So I am just going to let them believe I am dead?" The question was spark-wrenching. Ratchet felt like a villain. He didn't like the feeling. He tried to think of something that would make the femme feel at least a bit better.

"A closure is always better than not to know what has happened, is it not?" he offered. That sounded lame even to his own audios. But there was a seed of truth there. He hoped to Primus First Aid was still alive somewhere in space and not dead in some remote planet without him never knowing.

"I hate you." Her voice didn't hold the vehemence the statement had.

"War requires sacrifices." _Ah ain't got no regrets. _The bittersweet smile and the determined optics. If he could live that day again would he choose something differently? Could he have saved Jazz?

"I didn't choose to sacrifice anything!" the femme hissed. "I didn't choose this. No one asked me whether I wanted this!"

"Do you think war asks?"

Their argument was interrupted by Bumblebee who rushed in with wide optics.

"What's going on? Your yelling can be heard all the way to Optimus' office!" he asked while raising his optic ridges. "Optimus wanted to me to come and point out we are to be nice to our guest, not yell at her." Bumblebee threw a disapproving glance towards Ratchet.

"You could have asked me through comlink!" he muttered and looked guiltily away from the femme, who still was leaking from her eyes. She would soon run out of coolant if she didn't stop it.

"I tried, but you wouldn't answer me! And why have you made her cry?" Bumblebee pointed at Aurora, who was hastily trying to rub her optics dry and failing miserably. Apparently she was learning that metal didn't absorb liquid.

Ratchet frowned at Bumblebee's accusations, but checked his com-terminal nonetheless. He didn't usually miss messages, but he had to admit Bumblebee was right, at least this time.

.:Why is she yelling?:.

.:Why are you yelling back?:.

.:Optimus wants to know if you could kindly lower your voice.:.

.:Sideswipe sent a message. ETA 2 hours.:.

.:Optimus wants you to get ready.:.

.:Why aren't you answering?:.

.:STOP YELLING!:.

.:Ironhide asks you not so kindly to shut up.:.

.:Coming over. Optimus' orders.:.

He almost didn't notice the one about Sideswipe. Then he re-read it. Then he re-read it again. Then he let out a very long sigh. How high would the chances of them crashing but Prowl somehow surviving be? _Primus, hear me..._

"Well? Why did you make her cry?" Bumblebee was tapping the ground with his foot. Ratchet was about to defend himself, but Aurora beat him to it.

"No, it's okay... It's nothing. I just... got very emotional about something. I'm fine now, I promise!" Aurora assured. She even offered a smile to Bumblebee. "See, all fine!" Ratchet could see her smile quiver and he was sure Bumblebee could see it too.

"If that smile isn't fake then I don't know what is. What did you do?" Again that disapproving glance towards him. And again Aurora beating him to an answer.

"No seriously, I'm fine! We just had a small disagreement." The words sounded rehearsed, like she had said those exact words many times before. Even the tone of voice sounded off, like she didn't really mean it, but wanted them badly to believe the words.

She acted every bit like someone who had been abused and was making excuses for it. That had to change.

"Didn't sound like just _a small_ disagreement," Bumblebee muttered. "And you don't need to lie or make up any excuses."

"I forbade her to contact her parents," Ratchet explained and took a sideways glance at Aurora. She was hanging her head and looked miserable. "She didn't like it." Which was very understandable. What he didn't understand why she was so afraid of stating that she disagreed with them. Or that she was angry or sad because of it. Bubbling up your emotions wasn't healthy.

"Why would you do that?" Bumblebee seemed not to get Ratchet's reasoning.

"The same reason why you were assigned to protect Sam and his family?" he asked dryly.

"But we haven't seen or heard from the 'cons for months," the yellow mech argued.

"Yet you patrol the neighborhood every night, even when Optimus orders you to take the night off," Ratchet retorted. Bumblebee might have acted like he was carefree but Ratchet knew he took his responsibility as Sam's guardian very seriously.

"...I... Are you spying on me?" Bumblebee took actually a step back and hang his mouth open in surprise. "Why in the pit would you do that?"

"Who do you think he assigned to do the patrolling for you? And you are very," Ratchet tried to find the right word to describe the scout, "yellow."

A snigger brought his attention back to Aurora. She still seemed shaken, but tried her best to smile.

"He is right," she said to Bumblebee and sniffled. She still had some wetness in her faceplates, but at least she had stopped leaking. "You are very yellow." This made Bumblebee look at himself with worried optics.

"Is yellow bad?" he asked and turned his gaze back at them. A dawning realization hit Ratchet. The femme had managed to sidetrack them from the original subject – her. Fragging pit, she was good at evading subjects she didn't like.

"It's a happy color. It suits you." Bumblebee accepted the compliment with a grin. Somehow Ratchet suspected that Sunstreaker wouldn't appreciate his color of paint being called happy. And that reminded him of their arrival. Must he leave? He didn't want to see the twins, it did bad things to his internal temperature. Perhaps he would be able to persuade Optimus to order the twins to go and make a second base on the moon? Or Mars. Preferably Pluto.

"When did Optimus want me to leave?" he asked Bumblebee. The med-bay still needed the canvas from the parachutes, but he was sure Bumblebee could manage to do it. It wasn't a hard task. Otherwise the med-bay was ready.

"Oh! As soon as you are able." The yellow mech puckered his mouthplates. "I wish I could come too."

"You are leaving?" Aurora chimed in, her optics wide.

"Only for few hours." If all went well. Ratchet turned his attention back to Bumblebee. He needed someone to watch after Aurora. "You'll be staying at the base?"

"Yeah, Optimus thought it'd be best." Ratchet shared the sentiment. Aurora already knew Bumblebee and was fairly comfortable around him. Or at least she didn't quiver in fear.

"Aurora," he addressed her and received a questioning look, "explain your idea about the parachutes to Bumblebee. He can take care of the rest. I'll return as soon as I'm able."

"Alright," she said. "I hope mister Prowl will be okay." Bumblebee hung his head at the mention of the strategist.

"Poor Prowl," he whispered.

"I hope that too," Ratchet admitted to Aurora. "That's why we'll bring him here." He saw Aurora offer him a friendly wave as a goodbye before the doors of the med-bay obscured his view.

.:Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid while I'm away:.

.:Acknowledged.:.

Optimus and Ironhide were already waiting for him on the groundside. Ironhide was adjusting the trailer, which they would use to transfer Prowl to the base, on Optimus, while the said leader was on his alt mode talking with Will.

"Ah, Ratchet! Ready to leave?" Ironhide greeted him. "It seemed our new resident was giving you some trouble!"

"She wanted to contact her parents and I tried to explain why it wouldn't be wise," he sighed. "She had a hard time accepting it." And who could really blame her? Her whole life had just been turned upside down, it was only natural for her to seek at least some comfort and familiarity.

"While I do share your view on the subject, I think you could have delivered it without yelling," Optimus reprimanded him.

"I know. I lost my temper again. Thinking of Prowl... Well, you know." They'd know. They all had their demons.

"We all miss Jazz, but we can't let that affect our daily lives," Optimus noted. Yes, Ratchet knew all that. But sometimes it just was impossible for him to contain himself. He had a bad temper and sometimes he just lashed out, without meaning to.

"I know, I know," he admitted. "I'm just on edge because so much has happened lately."

"Like we all."

"Don't be so gloomy! Have you seen what Optimus picked for twins?" Ironhide interrupted them with an amused smile. "You're going to love it."

"What?" His interest was instantaneously piqued. If Ironhide liked it, it had to be something good. Or about weapons.

"Well, the twins need alt modes, because they are not going to land here, obviously," Ironhide started, his grin widening with every word he said.

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it," Ratchet hurried him. So Optimus had already picked alt modes for the twins? Well, Ratchet certainly was curious about his choices!

"Apparently one of the soldiers has a Dodge Aries..." Ironhide hinted, letting Ratchet to solve the meaning of the sentence by himself. It took him about a nano-klik to search the said car from the Internet.

At first he couldn't believe his processors. Then even to his own surprise he burst out laughing. Optimus was usually very solemn mech, but sometimes, like today, he really surprised. The twins would die of humiliation: Dodge Aries was one fragging ugly car. And Ratchet would be there to witness it all. He could already picture what Sunstreaker's faceplates would look like. He'd have to record it.

"I don't think there's any other car that would fit them more perfectly," he admitted.

oOo

A/N2: If you don't know what Dodge Aries looks like – Google it. Then imagine Sunstreaker and Sideswipe seeing it for the first time. Then imagine Optimus telling them they need to change into it with Ratchet laughing his aft off next to him.

I can't stop giggling.

Otherwise, reviews are always appreciated and I try to answer to each and everyone of them. Sadly I can't answer to those who leave anonymous reviews. :( A collective thank you to all of you!

Again, let me know what you thought! :3 I don't know whether I succeeded in nailing Jazz's accent. It's hard for me (as I'm not a native speaker) to write, but let me know whether I succeeded or failed. :D (I know it's just one sentence, but still...)


	7. Chapter 7: The Twins

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: Open Office, for now

Rating: T

Pairing: OC/?

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU, OOC(?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 4,233

A/N: I'm baaack! Whoaah, that was a long break. ._. My health decided to take a rollercoaster ride and I've been enjoying sinusitis for the past two weeks on top of the "regular" (*cough cough cough*) stuff. But I feel like I'm getting better. (Then again, I've been eating antibiotics and cortizone, so I should be getting better...)

But now I'm back into writing again! Yay! *_*

On a side note – I was super nervous about this chapter. And I still am. So I hope I portrayed everyone right, or at least partially right. I'd love to hear feedback.

And last, but definitely not least, Thank you all! Readers, reviewers, alerters – I adore you! I'm not sure if I answered to every review, but I tried my best! Hopefully I'll see you after this chapter too, so I can once again wonder "Did I answer to that person already? ;_;".

Gaaa, wall of text is wall of text! I'm stopping now. ENJOY!

oOo

**Chapter 7: The Twins**

The drive to the landing zone was mostly uneventful. Occasionally Ratchet would steal a glance at the Dodge Aries driven by Will and snicker to himself. He already had everything ready for the great moment. Nothing would stop him from recording the twins' reaction.

And then he could replay it over and over again.

Now the fact that twins were actually coming didn't feel half as bad. Now he had the upper hand. And after he'd take some pictures of the twins with their stunningly beautiful Dodge Aries forms, nothing could stop him from using the pictures to blackmail them into behaving.

This day was getting better and better.

The place Optimus and Ironhide, with the help of agent Simmons and Will, had chosen for the landing zone was in the desert near an abandoned military missile silo. According to Simmons the thing had been empty for years and could very well hide the spaceship. Or at least the ship should fit in there. Unless the twins had stolen a Decepticon mothership.

Which was highly unlikely.

At least he hoped so.

He also hoped that the twins knew how to land without blowing anything up.

By the All Spark there were so many things that could go wrong here.

.:Did the twins specify what sort of ship they'd be arriving with?:. he asked from both Ironhide and Optimus.

.:A regular transportation vessel. Small one at that,:. Optimus answered.

.:Sunstreaker kept on complaining how he keeps scratching his paint, because it's so cramped in there.:. There was an amused undertone in Ironhide's answer.

Ratchet couldn't resist sighing in relief. With the twins, you could never know what they would come up with. Arriving to Earth with a mothership wasn't really past their abilities.

.:How long do you think it'll take Sunstreaker to start getting on your nerves?:. Ironhide asked him on private channel. Ratchet couldn't resist rolling his optics.

.:He already is,:. he muttered. Ironhide answered to him with amused chuckle.

.:You've been running worst case scenarios in your processors ever since you knew they were coming, right?:.

.:You got that right.:. Yes, Ratchet had gone through every trick the twins had played on him earlier on and hoped to Primus they hadn't got anything new on their repertoire. His nerves weren't twin-proof.

So, when the ship had finally landed and the doors hissed open, he thought he was prepared for anything. Anything he could come up with at least. What he hadn't expected was seeing two battered, dirty and very tired looking mechs holding up the third one.

The moment he saw the rigid looking Prowl, the medic in him kicked into action. There was only a small light in Prowl's optics, a sign he was still online, but he seemed to be somewhere very, very far away.

Fragging sparkshocks.

"Good to see you haven't lost your manners, Hatchet," the red mech on Prowl's right side commented.

"Ignoring us again? I thought you'd already realized it doesn't work on us," the golden one on Prowl's left added.

"Just keep Prowl still while I scan him," Ratchet managed to mutter. Maybe the twins would just disappear if he ignored them long enough. Oh, Primus how he hoped for that. Perhaps Optimus would send them on a new mission. He sent a pleading glance towards Optimus' direction.

To his disappointment, Optimus just seemed amused, although he did send worried looks on Prowl's direction.

"Not even a welcome speech? Sheesh, now I feel like you haven't missed us at all!" Sideswipe huffed and tried to poke Ratchet on his shoulder plate. He shoved Sideswipe's servo away and continued his scan. No injuries. Just low energon levels.

"Don't poke me," he muttered and added a colorful litany of Cybertronian swearwords. Prowl's spark was weak and his processor activity low. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all.

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe," Optimus addressed the newly arrived warriors.

"Optimus," the twins spoke in unison and also nodded to Ironhide as a greeting.

"I except to receive a full mission briefing when we get back to the base," Ironhide commented. He was probably as curious as Ratchet on how the hell the twins had actually managed to blow up a whole planet.

"Sure," Sideswipe's nonchalant reply was. "By the way, did you know Soundwave is busy touring around Earth's atmosphere? The slagger even had the nerve to wave at us when we passed him."

"And you didn't shoot him?" Ratchet hissed between his mouthplates. Oh Primus, Prowl wasn't answering any of his queries. It was like he wasn't there at all.

"This piece of slag of a ship doesn't have any weapons," Sideswipe added to his defense.

"I find that hard to believe," Ironhide muttered and Ratchet had to agree with him. Twins, stealing a ship with no weapons? Not happening.

"Well, you try and pick a ship when there's countdown on how soon the planet under you is going to explode and there's a very angry Shockwave trying to offline you. Not easy, I tell you."

"And because of Prowl, I managed to get scratches all over my paint job! I - look – horrendous! I even almost lost my arm and now it keeps glitching whenever I try to grab something with it."

"You always look horrendous," Ratchet shot back and pretended he hadn't heard Sunstreaker complaining about his arm. He'd live. Prowl was his number one concern now. After him came Aurora.

Quite frankly, Sunstreaker was at the very bottom of his do-to-list.

"Oh, shut up mister Green-is-my-color," Sunstreaker spat back at him. "You wouldn't know stylish even if it screamed at you with Starscream's voice."

"I never understood why you want to be golden. That'll automatically make you a target on a battlefield," Ironhide commented. "Not to mention it makes stealth-jobs almost impossible."

"He likes the attention," Sideswipe answered on his brother's behalf.

"Well, how would the Decepticons know I'm the handsomest mech to ever have lived in the universe if my paint was some ordinary gray or something. Or green for that matter."

Ratchet had to bit his mouthplate in order not to try and hit the mech. There he was, trying to get Prowl to answer to anything, and Sunstreaker had the nerve to insult him on his paint job?

"I don't understand what is your problem with the color green," he managed to sigh. Primus, he couldn't concentrate here. Not with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe sharing that amused glance.

"I don't. I have a problem with you being green. You gave the color green a bad name, Hatchet."

"Stop calling me Hatchet." Oh, if only he had his wrench with him right now...

"Not going to happen. Hatchet."

That was it. Ratchet stood up abruptly and was ready to give Sunstreaker a mouthful of opinions coated with Cybertronian insults, but they had all forgotten one participant, who apparently was tired of being ignored.

"I don't want to interrupt, but I seriously have no idea what you are speaking of. English, please?" Will managed to yell in between. He waved at the twins to get their attention. Ratchet closed his mouth. Oh yes. They had forgotten about Will.

The twins didn't really know anything about humans. And they'd had the whole exchange in Cybertronian. It was a wonder the major hadn't interrupted them earlier.

"What in the name of the pit is that?" Sunstreaker croaked out, seemingly in disgust.

"He's our ally. It would do you good to learn the language English, while staying on this planet," Optimus advised the twins, who shared a skeptical look with each other.

"I have the feeling you are talking about me? I'm major William Lennox and I'm in charge of the Autobots on Earth. Very nice to meet you. I think," Will continued in English.

"Is he serious?" Sideswipe asked in no one particular.

"No one is in charge of me... _fleshbag_," Sunstreaker growled in perfect English and would probably have introduced his weapon repertoire to Will if he hadn't been busy holding Prowl upright.

"Well, except the boss bot, of course," Sideswipe chimed in when Optimus let out a demanding cough.

"Did you just call me a fleshbag?" Will sounded surprised. Ratchet was amazed that Ironhide hadn't warned Will about the twins.

"I wouldn't mind myself on what Sunstreaker's calling you," Ironhide said. "You wouldn't believe the names he has called me by."

"You are a fleshbag are you not?" Sunstreaker addressed Will before turning to Optimus. "How low have we fallen to call...these... creatures our allies."

"Sunstreaker." There was a dangerous undertone on Optimus' voice. Ratchet felt his mood lightening. Oh, if Optimus would get angry, it would mean dire times for twins. Maybe they would get sent to Antarctica after all? He could always hope so.

"No, seriously. On what merits are these lowlifes our allies?"

"These lowlifes are letting you stay on our planet and are helping you fight the Decepticons!" Will argued. "Don't you think you should change your attitude to be a bit more respectful!"

"I don't need any help to kill a Decepticon. I especially don't need help from such a frail and miserable fleshbag as yourself."

Will looked like he was ready to take on Sunstreaker with bare hands. Although it would have been amusing see Sunstreaker's faceplates when a human would attack him head on, Will would have lost. Ironhide seemed to have the same idea, since he was placing himself between Will and Sunstreaker and flexed his weapons. The warning was clear enough.

"Sunstreaker! That's enough! You are not to call our allies anything! Humans are our allies and you will treat them as such!" Optimus voice was practically booming. Ratchet saw Will flinch. Yeah, angry Prime wasn't something you necessarily wanted to be nearby.

"Pfft" was Sunstreaker's answer before he gazed at Ratchet. "How long is it going to take for you to finish? I'd kind of like to take this weigh of my shoulders if you know what I mean."

"Sideswipe," Optimus warned the other twin.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll keep him under control," the red twin sighed and shared a long look with his brother. There seemed to be an inner debate between the two, which seemed to be won by Sideswipe, since Sunstreaker actually shut up. He didn't seem too happy about it though.

"What's Prowl's status?" Optimus turned his attention to Ratchet. He shrugged his shoulders. Physically everything seemed to be fine if you didn't count the weakening spark, but mentally...

"He's... stable. For the moment. But I can't do much here, we need to get back to the base," he admitted. He'd need to do the basic check-up for viruses and malware and after that start mending the shock that followed a broken bond.

"Alright. Agent Simmons is coming here with a team to hide the spaceship. Ironhide, you stay here and see that the agent doesn't do anything else," the Prime started giving out commands.

"Acknowledged" was Ironhide's stern reply. He still hadn't lowered his weapons, which were still aimed towards the golden mech looming near the spaceship's entrance.

"Major, you stay here too."

"With pleasure," Will answered and glared at the twins. Ratchet shared his feelings. The twins surely had made an impression. He actually felt kind of sad that Agent Simmons would miss the first meeting with the twins. Ratchet could have enjoyed that one.

"The rest – you'll return with me to the base. And Sunstreaker, Sideswipe," Optimus started and fell silent when he saw that Sideswipe was poking Prowl's head hoping to get a reaction.

"Yeah?" he asked while grinning. Ratchet slapped his servo away and Sideswipe made a face at him. Optimus sighed deeply before continuing his sentence:

"Majority of the humans do not know of our presence here. It is mandatory to stay undercover everytime you leave the base. Is this understood?"

Oh! Ratchet knew what was coming next. His mood improved rapidly. This moment, this small moment, would be worth all the torture he had endured in the servos of the twins. This. This would be – as the humans said – priceless.

"Yep." Oh, the twins were se oblivious. Ratchet had to bite his mouthplates again. He wouldn't give the surprise away. Sunstreaker glanced at him and his apparent happiness seemed to worry the golden mech. Sunstreaker shared a suspicious look with his brother.

_Oh, you have no idea what's in store for you..._

"We have chosen the Earth vehicles as our alternative modes. I have chosen you a model you can change into until such a time that you have chosen something for yourself. Enjoy."

Ratchet had to everything he had him in not to burst out laughing. The monotonous tone the Prime had used worked just perfectly there. His demeanor was utterly serious, which made the situation all the more hilarious.

Sideswipe seemed not to get it, although Optimus clearly was pointing at the Dodge Aries.

"I don't understand... What do you want us change into?" he asked while scratching his faceplates. By the look of Sunstreaker's faceplates he had gotten the idea though. Ratchet had never seen such horror on him.

By the All Spark, it felt good.

"That is your alternative form," Optimus explained very slowly. "It is called a Dodge Aries." Realization slowly dawned on Sideswipe's faceplates. And Ratchet was filming every bit of it.

"You are joking, right?" Sideswipe asked with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"I'm not changing into that," Sunstreaker said firmly. "I'm not."

"Yes you are," Ratchet grinned and motioned the twins to follow him. Prowl needed to be placed on Optimus trailer.

"No we are not. Are you filming this?" Sideswipe stopped walking.

"Oh, yes." The pleasure in his voice was audible. If Prowl had been okay, the day would have been near perfect.

"No. No, no no! You are deleting that file right now! And no, I'm not going to change into that! That is one fragging ugly Earth vehicle! There is just no way – you hear me – no way!"

"It is an order," Optimus boomed.

"This is payback for what we did to you in Cybertron, isn't it?" Sideswipe asked with a knowing face.

"Revenge, Prime... I didn't think you'd fall that low," Sunstreaker added. Ratchet gazed back at the Prime. What the slag had the twins done to Optimus to receive this kind of treatment?

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Optimus said coolly.

"Yes you have," the twins argued in unison. It was like watching a human tennis match. Which Ratchet obviously never did. And definitely not the female tennis.

"No. This was the only suitable vehicle we had at the moment. Now, you just must change into it. That is an order."

"Frag your orders!" Sunstreaker snapped. Everything seemed to stop. Even Sideswipe seemed to be surprised by his brother's outburst. Optimus just raised his optic ridge questioningly.

"Are you challenging me?" he asked slowly his stature changing a bit. Ratchet recognized the stance. Optimus was fully ready for battle.

This wasn't going to end well.

There was a tense moment where Sunstreaker and Optimus were just standing and staring at each other until Sunstreaker sighed and the moment was gone.

"No."

"You're a fragging idiot," Sideswipe commented to his brother, who didn't bother to reply. Ratchet shared the notion. But then again, both of the twins were idiots.

Idiots that had to change into Dodge Aries.

The way back to the base was as uneventful as the ride to the landing zone if you didn't count Sideswipe's occasional muttering. After they had checked that Prowl was safely ready for the ride both of the twins had grudgingly changed into their new alternative forms. Sideswipe had been muttering atrocities for the whole time, but Sunstreaker had been awfully quiet.

Ratchet had a feeling he was forming a plan of murdering everyone who had seen him.

Which meant he'd have to change the access codes to his room so he could sleep peacefully. He'd also need to take a backup file from the video he'd filmed. Preferably backup file from the backup file too.

He only realized when they were walking towards the med-bay that Aurora was in no way prepared to meet the twins yet. And he needed the twins to carry Prowl back.

Well, wasn't this all jolly good and fun. He felt his foul mood hit him back. Optimus had had to go to a human meeting, otherwise they could have carried Prowl back.

He would just have to hope Aurora wouldn't receive any traumas from the two forces of nature. Which meant he'd have to warn twins to stay away from her.

Which would mean they'd try everything they could to get near her.

Oh, fragging pit.

"I already have a patient at med bay," he started his sentence, trying not to make her too interesting, "a femme who has had a very traumatic event." To put it mildly.

"A femme?" Sideswipe asked, clearly interested. Ratchet cursed in his head. Yes, of course he'd only hear 'femme' and nothing else.

"Somehow I knew you'd get stuck on that part and not the traumatic event part," he muttered.

"What can I say? We like femmes. Or at least I do." Sideswipe threw a long glance towards his brother who sent an icy glare back.

"Yes, but you need to be careful around this one," Ratchet tried to explain, but was cut short by Sideswipe.

"Why? Does she pack a mean punch?"

"Not...that I know of. But seriously speaking, she's a special case and she doesn't need anymore drama than there already is. So as a medic I strictly advise you to leave her be, for the time being." Oh Primus, that came out differently than he had tried. It basically screamed 'GO TO THIS FEMME NOW'.

"Ok, that's cool" was Sideswipe's answer. Sunstreaker hadn't spoken anything since he'd changed into the Dodge Aries. Ratchet almost fell to his aft when he heard the twin's answer.

"Seriously?" They were going to listen to him? Well, that was news!

"Yeah, you are a medic, you know what's best for her."

"I don't think I've ever heard you say those words," Ratchet commented and tried to search the other mech's faceplates for the usual hint of mischief or lies. There was none. Either he was getting better at lying or he was serious.

"Well, we've been a long time apart. Maybe we grew up." Sideswipe's poker face betrayed him at that moment and he couldn't resist a grin. "Or maybe we didn't."

"Oh, by the Primus," Ratchet threw his servos in the air. "I give up. You are not allowed to come the med-bay after bringing Prowl in. Ever."

"You can't keep us out!"

"But I swear to Primus I will try," Ratchet muttered and stepped in to the med-bay.

What waited him there made his foul mood even fouler. Didn't anyone listen to him?

Bumblebee had heard the doors open and had turned to watch who was coming in. Upon seeing that it was indeed Ratchet, he had let go of Aurora's arm in panicked motion.

And in result Aurora was sitting on his aft on the floor cringing.

"Crap that hurt," she hissed between her mouthplates.

"I'm so sorry!" Bumblebee yelled, both to her and to Ratchet apparently. Ratchet had to count to ten.

_Remember Dodge Aries. Remember Dodge Aries._

Yes, now his mood was better again.

"Oh, so this is your frail patient?" Sideswipe asked behind him with a hint of a smile. Aurora's head bounced up and she looked curiously at the new voice. A shy smile appeared on her face.

"Hi, I'm Aurora," she said cheeringly until her optics landed on Prowl and her face became worried.

"The Roman Goddess of the Sun," Sunstreaker commented. Ratchet almost landed on his aft too.

By the Primus. By the frigging Primus.

He didn't like the look Sunstreaker had. Not at all.

He didn't like the look the brother shared with each other.

And he certainly didn't like the look both of them sent towards Aurora.

"No!" he said firmly and waved his servos in front of them. "I know what you are thinking and the answer is no."

Both Aurora and Bumblebee seemed to be oblivious to the situation. And by the Primus, he didn't have time for this. He should be taking care of Prowl instead of chasing the twins away from the first femme they had seen in vorns.

"Well, yes, my name was given after the Aurora Borealis, but how did you know that?" Aurora asked from Ratchet. There was a stunned silence for a while.

"How come you have an Earth name?" Sideswipe asked before Ratchet managed to utter out anything. This situation was getting out of hand. He hadn't yet told them Aurora was really a human. And considering how Sunstreaker had reacted to Will...

"Oh, I am really a human. Ratchet didn't tell you?"

Oh Primus, what would he give to not to be in there right now.

"No. He didn't tell us." Sunstreaker looked towards him with a very stern gaze.

.:You didn't specify she's more crazy than Wheeljack or Red Alert on a good day.:.

.:She speaks the truth. I can explain it later on.:.

.:...WHAT?:.

.:Just try to act normal.:.

Well, his 'try to act normal' apparently went to deaf audios, since the twins acted anything but normal. Sunstreaker's gaze had went from predatory to cold in an astrosecond and Sideswipe just looked uncomfortable.

"Where do you want to put Prowl?" he asked.

"The free berth, on the corner," Ratchet answered and noticed that Aurora and Bee had managed to put some makeshift-curtains around it. Aurora had an uncertain smile on and Bee just looked like he'd been hit in the head too many times.

"What are your names?" Aurora asked, still sitting on the floor. Sunstreaker didn't even glance at her. Sideswipe actually managed to make his gaze apologetic. Ratchet saw Aurora's smile starting to waver.

.:I think you should leave.:.

Sunstreaker practically stormed out of the room. Ratchet had to sidestep to avoid a head on collision with the looming mech. This hadn't went well. Sideswipe followed in his brother's wake, but just before the doors closed after them, he turned his head and mouthed a silent 'sorry'.

"Was it... was it something I said?" Aurora asked quietly. Ratchet shook his head.

"They just don't like humans," he explained and shot a disapproving gaze towards the femme. He had not given her permission to get up. "And how are you on the floor?"

"It's my fault! I promised to walk her around a bit. To make her get used to her new legs," Bumblebee jumped in and offered to help Aurora up. She was still staring after the twins, with a sad look on her face.

Ratchet sighed. Well, he should have seen this coming.

"I guess that's okay. As long as you don't drop her on the floor like you just did."

"You scared the frag out of me!"

"Maybe you shouldn't do things you were told not to!"

"Please don't yell," Aurora whispered from the floor. Both Ratchet's and Bumblebee's attention was on her now. She looked so fragile sitting there, with her green optics drawn to the closed door. Ratchet sighed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I'm just so worried that you'll break a part of yourself, when you don't yet know your limits. But walking around with Bumblebee should be fine if he doesn't let you drop."

"I won't do that again, I promise."

"No, it's okay. I'm tired anyway." There – that fake smile again. Ratchet got a sick feeling in his tanks everytime he saw it. It was so rehearsed he couldn't but wonder how many times she'd plastered that smile on her face.

"Oh, well, I'll help you back on the berth then," Bumblebee offered.

"Thank you."

There was an undertone in her voice, but Ratchet couldn't quite catch what it was. But Primus, did it bother him! But he knew that right now Prowl was his number one concern. And he couldn't force Aurora into anything.

She'd have to tell him herself what had happened to her. He couldn't force her.

"I need to start taking care of Prowl now. If there's anything you want, just...tell me alright?" he was sure his voice portrayed the worry he had for his patient. Too bad his patient didn't receive it.

"Yes, I will."

If that wasn't a lie, he didn't know what was.


	8. Chapter 8: Storytime

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: IBM Lotus Symphony, sadly

Rating: T (may go up later, I'm not sure o_O)

Pairing: :3

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,383

A/N: Holymoly Batman, I am back! Phew. Took me ages to update and I'm very sorry for that. Hopefully this chapter will make you forgive me. :)

Also, I want to thank each and everyone of you for your reviews. I'm not sure whether I answered to everyone of you (I hope I did!), because my memory is sloppy. ^^" If I didn't, don't take it personally.

There might be mistakes. I'm actually quite sure there are. I'm also taking quite many liberties with the bots. They live their own life inside my head, I can't help it.

Hopefully my characterizations are good though. Tell me what you think. ^_^ Hopefully you also had nice holidays! (My boyfriend gave me Autobot and Decepticon necklaces. *_*)

oOo

**Chapter 8: Storytime  
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Small steps. Remember. Small steps. Turn at the corner. Catch your balance. Right foot. Left foot. Small steps. Careful, careful...

And she was at the end of the corridor.

Aurora couldn't resist a small smile. She had really done it. She had walked from one end of the corridor to the other without anyone helping.

Or knowing for that matter.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the help Ratchet and Bumblebee offered her, but sometimes... Sometimes she just needed to things by herself. The feeling of accomplishment was much bigger.

She felt proud of herself. It had took her a week, but she had managed to walk whole trip without taking any support from the walls.

And the week had gone by surprisingly fast. There hadn't been much she had been allowed to do and only places she really knew were the med-bay and the corridor outside, but somehow the time had went by quicker than expected.

Occasionally she had caught glimpses of the infamous duo she now knew as 'the blasted twins', but they had avoided her as much as she had avoided them. The hostility she had sensed firsthand when they met had been overwhelming and she didn't want to get caught in it again. She had already paid for her mistakes with Dave, she didn't want to repeat that.

When Aurora heard clapping behind her, she got startled so badly her foot got caught with the other and she fell to the floor on a pitiful heap. Cringing, she tried to collect her bearings and failed miserably. So, that was why Ratchet had advised not to practise alone...

"Oh, I didn't mean to scare you" a voice said and a mechanical hand appeared before her eyes. Just her luck. The Autobot she didn't want to run into and she needed his help to get up. Typical.

The red menace she had heard Ratchet call him. Aurora hadn't made her own opinion yet, mainly because she hadn't talked to them. Besides, Ratchet was usually right about things. So she trusted Ratchet's opinion. Which meant she shouldn't talk to them. At all. 'Just ignore them' the advice had been.

"Are you going to sit on the floor for the whole next week or let me help you before Ratchet finds out you sneaked again to train by yourself?" he asked after a while, when Aurora hadn't made any move to grasp the hand offered to her. "Or I could just go and fetch Ratchet right away." A low chuckle. "Probably not though. He is pretty angry I locked him inside the storage room again."

He had _what_? And how did he know about her secret sessions? And why couldn't he leave her alone?

He really seemed nice, though. Kind even. But...

Dave had been kind too. And the hostility she had sensed from the mech when they first met...

"Hey, you are not afraid of me, are you?" There was a long pause, when neither of them said anything. Aurora didn't know what to say. She had ton of things she could've said, but her voice just couldn't work. A panic crept upon her spine. What if he would get mad at her? If Ratchet was still locked in the storage room, he wouldn't be able to help her.

She tried again to get her limbs untangled from the mess they were in, but to no avail. She was stuck. Her breath hitched in her throat. Or rather, the ventilation she needed to cool her systems. The sound it made was horrible. Oh gods, surely he had heard that one.

Aurora flinched when she felt him touch her face, but his touch was surprisingly gentle. Slowly she lifted her gaze from the floor to face his. He had lowered himself to her level and was looking at her with a mixed expression.

"You really are afraid of me, huh?" The thought seemed to disappoint him somewhat. Then again, she could be wrong. While their face-expressions were similar to those of humans, she sometimes just couldn't read them. Ratchet especially had a good pokerface.

Their gazes locked.

"I would never hurt you," he said in a low tone. "None of us would. On gladiator's honor."

She really, really wanted to believe him, but there was a voice in the back of her mind, screaming. _Dave said he wouldn't hurt you. Over and over again._

How to tell your body not to be afraid? How to tell your mind not to be afraid?

She'd love to be strong. Not scared.

Her inner turmoil must have showed, because he let go of her and stepped back. Aurora thought he would leave and somehow she found herself disappointed. She'd like to be able to answer to him. To find her voice and say that she was hurt. That she wanted to heal.

But those words just hitched in her throat and made her hate herself even more.

To her uttermost surprise though, he didn't leave. Instead he sat across from her on the hallway and cocked his head.

"You know, you remind me of a sparkling I once rescued on Cybertron," he started slowly and continued when he realized he had gotten her attention, "you see, me and Sunny were a bit wild back in our younger days and had once again snuck out of base. Mostly because Sunny was feeling restless. I just tagged along, hoping we'd find some 'Con scum along the way.

"We found more than we'd hoped for. A raiding party. More than we were able to take care of back then. I mean, we are the best fighter's Autobots could ever hope for, but taking twenty 'Cons at once? Yeah, that was a tad difficult."

Aurora couldn't help but to lean a bit closer. There was a lopsided smile on his face, showing that he had realized she had her full attention.

"I'm not really sure what happened." He frowned. "I know for a fact that I got shot from behind, but things are a bit blurry afterwards. I remember Sunny shouting 'watch out!' and something colliding with my mid section. I fell to a chasm with a freaking 'Con trying his darnest to stab me in my spark."

A painful expression went through the mechs face, but he quickly hid it. Aurora wasn't sure it had been there in the first place. Falling to a chasm.

Shivers went down her spine. She remembered the fall. She tried to swallow and lose herself in his story. _Don't think of the fall._

"I can't remember what happened afterwards. I probably killed him and landed on a ledge. When I came back online, everything was quiet and I was all by myself. I could feel Sunny being beyond agitated and tried to reassure him I was fine. Only thing was – I wasn't. I was bleeding energon so badly I knew I'd be done for if no one came for me. I couldn't move my legs. And my com-unit was deader than Ratchet's love life. I knew where I was, but there was no way for me to tell others."

Aurora couldn't help but to smile at the jab towards Ratchet. As the story progressed she could feel herself becoming more and more relaxed. He wasn't as bad as Ratchet had made him out to be.

"Both me and Sunny wore dampeners to hide our spark signals. It's to protect yourself from Decepticon scanners. I could've taken the dampener off, but if a Decepticon would find me...

"That was when I heard it. I had to strain my audios to recognize the voice, but as sure as I was dying – I wasn't alone. Someone's cooling fan was wheezing. I remember taking my blades out, thinking I'd take the bastard with me, and switched to thermal mode. What I saw was not what I had expected." He took a small break and gazed at the ceiling, looking lost in memories. Aurora took the time to look at him properly for the first time. His build was different from Ratchet's. He was taller, leaner and more... She couldn't quite find the word. He oozed danger, but also strength.

"The little bugger had hid itself in a ventilation shaft a few mechanometers away from me. I probably wouldn't even have noticed it if not for the fact that it's fan was glitching and wheezed with regular intervals.

"He was in a dead-end and I was between him and freedom. Lucky for me. I'm sure he would've scurried off the nanoclick he had heard me otherwise. So, there I was, bleeding out, my com-unit down and my salvation just a few mechanometers away from me.

"You see, the sparklings don't have a long range communication system like we do. But they did have short-range. I knew Sunny was still around, frantically searching for me. I just needed the sparkling to cooperate with me.

"Which was way, way easier said than done."

oOo

Fraggit. Fraggit all. He spat out energon mixed with coolant, cringing. Fragging great. The 'Con had ruptured his nerve system below the legs as well as some cooling and energon lines. This was not good. It'd be hard to fix and he'd die if he didn't get to Ratchet soon.

"Hey there, little fellow," he coaxed, trying to sound friendly and not desperate. "I'm not going to hurt you." The only answer he got was a long wheeze.

"You have a bit of a wheezing problem, don't you? No worries," he coughed up more energon and coolant, "Ratchet can fix that up for you. He's great with... fixing." Frag, the coolant didn't taste good at all. Sunny was getting even more frantic and he could practically feel how he was hammering messages down his way. He knew what they were about.

_Don't you dare to go offline, brother. Don't you dare._

Sideswipe wasn't so sure he was going to make it. What made him even more sad was the fact that the sparkling would probably offline too in the future. It couldn't survive on its own.

"You live here?" he asked, knowing he wouldn't receive an answer. "It's kind of cold and damp here. Not nice at all." A coughing fit caught him and he had to pause to regain his composure. "I know a nice place. There's energon there. And berths. Also a lot of nice Autobots."

"There's of course Ratchet. He's the medic. I like to lock him up on storage rooms. He likes to whack me in the head with a wrench. He used to have this quite nice white and red coloring. Me and my brother repainted him. His now green. He didn't like that." And they had spent a week in the brig afterwards.

"And then there's Ironhide. His a bit hotheaded. And old. And grumpy." He let out a bitter laugh. "His probably going to have a fit when I don't come back. Even though he doesn't admit it, he has a soft spot for me and my bro."

"The golden one that will probably look angry when you see him... he is my brother. Sunny. He whines and complains a lot, but he is my brother and he is the world to me. And I to him. By the Primus, he is me."

"Our leader is the mightiest of them all. Optimus Prime." Sideswipe couldn't hide the awe and the admiration from his voice. "I didn't know mechs like him existed. The only word that can describe him is... good. He is so good to me and my bro and I don't know where we'd be without him. Probably dead." More energon. More coolant. Frag. Frag, frag, frag. "Although, I think I am going to die soon."

"I regret that I haven't really told him that. I mean that I respect him. He deserves to know it. He deserves to know that he is the best thing to have happened to me and my brother. When everyone else scorned us, he gave us chances. When no one else would took as in, he did. When everyone else hated us, he... loved us." He was delirious. He had to be. He hadn't said that out loud to anyone. Ever.

He turned his head only to realize the sparkling was staring at him with wide light blue eyes.

"Would he take me in too?" the sparkling asked with broken voice, it's protoform shaking from loss of energon and cold.

"Without thinking twice," Sideswipe answered, knowing it would be so.

"Can you take me to him?"

"No, little one. But you can help me so he can find us."

"Me?"

"You can contact my brother with your short range com-unit."

"What will I say?"

"Transfer these coordinates. Say those are from Sides. Tell him to bring Ratchet."

oOo

"I was sure it took Sunny only a astrosecond to be there. He was beyond worry. I've never seen him like that. I wasn't sure whether he was going to punch me or hug me. Ratchet and the gang followed soon after. The little bugger hid under my arm until Ratchet had made his field repairs. Then he promptly asked Ratchet if he'd be kind enough and not hit him with a wrench but instead fix his fans." He smiled at the memory and Aurora noticed she was smiling too.

"What happened to the sparkling?" she couldn't help but to ask.

"First Aid? He became one of the best medics Cybertron had ever seen." There was a hint of proudness in his voice. "Ratchet became his guardian and taught him everything he knew. I might've taught him a few tricks though. Off the record and without Ratchet knowing." He was grinning now, a widespread grin that showed the tips of his teeth.

"Where is he know?" Aurora wondered and couldn't help but to also wonder why Autobots had teeth.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He shrugged, but his grin didn't fade. She was puzzled. Why was he looking at her like that? Then she realized she was talking to him. And she wasn't shaking anymore.

"I see I still got the charm," he laughed and Aurora smile shyly. Distracting her with a story. That had been a good tactic.

"Will you now accept my help?" he asked and offered her his hand with a twinkle in his eyes. His cerulean blue optics. Like sky.

No one with a color like that in his eyes could be evil. No one.

She accepted his hand with a smile.

"Gladly," she answered and was on her feet before she had finished her sentence. She almost toppled over again because of the quickness but he helped her to catch her balance.

"You going back to the med-bay now?" he asked and offered her his arm. Aurora accepted it, mostly because she thought it would be rude not to. Especially since she had been so rude earlier on.

She couldn't help but to wonder why Ratchet had warned her about them. Then it hit her. She didn't even know their names!

"Uhm, it seems I don't know your name," she said and stared at the floor. Hopefully he wouldn't be mad. Dave was always mad when she forgot his friend's names.

"You didn't get my message?" His voice seemed to come somewhere far away, but it brought her back to reality. She stared at him. Message? What message? Should she have gotten one? Should she have answered?

She had no idea what he was talking about.

"Your message?" Hopefully it wasn't anything important. Maybe it had been?

"Via the com-link?" he prompted. Oh, yes, they could send messages right each other's brain. Ratchet had said she didn't need one. At least not yet.

"I don't think it's on. Ratchet said it would confuse me too much." She had trouble even walking. Receiving telepathic messages would probably be too much on her mind right now.

"Oh. I send it to you right after we first met," he explained. She felt herself relaxing again. He didn't sound mad. "I'm sorry about Sunny. He can be...extreme at times."

He had been the golden one.

"Sunny is your twin, right?" Aurora verified.

"Yes, the uglier one. Don't tell him I said that, it would shatter his ego to know I'm actually better looking." He winked at her. "I'm Sideswipe. Most of the others call me Sides, though."

Aurora found herself enjoying his company. There still was that little noise in the back of her mind that told her to be wary, but it was a lot quieter than before.

It did remind her of a question she had had before. She frowned. How had Sideswipe known she snuck to train on a regular basis?

"I've rigged the cameras. I get the feed before the security does," he answered before she even asked and laughed at her expression. "You had the question written all over your face."

"There are cameras?" she exclaimed. She'd no idea. The look Sideswipe sent her was dry.

"You are in a military base," he commented. Well, now she felt just silly. Of course there were cameras.

"I know, but I hadn't thought... Oh, well," she sighed and sent a questioning look towards him. "Wait, why have you rigged the cameras?"

"So I can erase the feed where Ratchet is banging the storage room door and calling me scrap metal and Starscream's secret lover. He has gotten pretty creative with his insults lately. I've also erased your little training sessions. If you don't want anyone to know, I'm not the one to tell."

"Thank you," she said feeling grateful. Aurora didn't know why she felt like she needed to keep her training a secret. Maybe because she wanted to decide something for herself once, without asking for anyone's opinion, or maybe because she was afraid she wouldn't be allowed to do it. She didn't know. She just knew this was something she wanted to do. Needed to do.

When they reached the med-bay door, Sideswipe punched in the access code before Aurora had the chance to even open her mouth. She did receive a sheepish grin from him.

"Ratchet thinks his smart, but he has never been able to outsmart me and Sunny."

"Apparently. I thought only Ratchet and Bumblebee had access," she said. To keep unwanted visitors out when Ratchet wasn't around.

"Everyone but me and Sunny should have access," Sideswipe corrected her. In a way that made sense. She had yet to meet the leader of the Autobots, but as a leader he should have access to everywhere. And Ironhide had visited the Autobot Prowl in the med-bay regularly. "You don't tell him I know the access code and I won't tell him you train by yourself."

Well, that didn't sound too bad.

"Deal."

oOo

_She was flying. The world around her whisked by in a blur of shapes and the wind caressed her as she gained more and more speed. The sun glinted from her body, making her optics hurt if she looked at it for too long. _

_But she was happy. Free._

_She twirled around and spun and spun and spun and the whole world around her mixed in one blurry scene. She was part of the sky. _

_The orange sky. _

_She yelled her name at it. She wanted the sky to recognize it. She wanted everyone to recognize it. To recognize her._

_She was alive!_

Aurora woke with a gasp that night. Her heart was still racing from the thrill of the dream. She hadn't seen dreams since... since the accident.

She felt oddly at peace though and smiled in the darkness. She had liked the feeling of flying.

She tried to fall asleep quickly to catch the remains of the dream, but it escaped her clutches. The rest of her night was spent in oblivion.

Shame. She had really liked flying.


	9. Chapter 9: A Day in the Life

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: IBM Lotus Symphony, sadly

Rating: T

Pairing: :3

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,325

A/N: I'M BACK. Phuuh. So sorry for the long wait. I was sick a lot during the winter and got diagnosed with depression. (Don't worry, I'm feeling better now.)

On a side note – I have so many ideas for this story! This was just one of them I had to write. (And goddamnit, Sam is hard to write. Hopefully I did him justice.)

And since I haven't written in a very, very long time, I hope I'm not too rusty. Enjoy.

Ps. Thank you for the reviews so much! They've cheered me up so much, you have no idea! And soon we'll crack the 100 reviews mark. o_o I never in my wildest dream would've thought this story would receive so much positive attention. *_* I love you all. Thank you!

oOo

**Chapter 9: A Day in the Life of Samuel James Witwicky**

It was supposed to be just a regular day in the life of Samuel James Witwicky.

Key word being "supposed".

He woke up to the shrilling beeps of his alarm clock, managed to drop the damn thing under the bed and tangled himself in the sheets in the process of trying to shut the torture device up. A groan escaped his mouth.

"Come here, you effing piece of useless plastic," he muttered and tried to reach beeping menace. He felt his fingertips brush it. Soon, soon...

The blasting of his phone's ring tone (Turtles' opening) made him fall of his bed and hit his head on the bedside table. And now his phone was under the bed too, accompanying the clock. He felt like crying.

He managed to reach the phone just in time to see Mikaela's name flash on the screen, before the ringing ended. But the steady beeping of the alarm clock continued.

Five minutes later the said piece of utter annoyance was in the trash can and Sam was lying on the bed, a stupid grin on his face. Three months. Exactly three months ago he had saved the world and got the girl. Who would have guessed?

"So, I was thinking maybe pizza and a good movie?" Mikaela suggested in the other end of the line. "I hear there's this good action flick going on."

Anything sounded good when Mikaela was the one suggesting it. He would've even gone shopping with her if she asked. Well, luckily she didn't, but he would've.

"Sounds good. Will you come with me to the base today though? Before we head out? Bee said I'm needed for some sort of counseling."

"Counseling? You?" There was a hint of laughter in Mikaela's voice. Sam couldn't blame her, he didn't think he'd be a could counselor either.

"Bee thinks the new bot is lonely," he explained. He could see himself helping with loneliness.

"The female one? Of course I'll join you! But why would it want human company?" Sam had thought about that too, but hadn't come up with anything. And Bee wasn't telling him anything.

"Well, Bee said I'm in for a surprise." Sam usually liked surprises. Or more like he used to like surprises. When they didn't contain something robotic and ready to shoot him.

"Nasty one or a nice one? Do you think the cons are back?" There was a hint of worry in Mikaela's voice and Sam couldn't help but to agree with her. If the cons were back...

"He just said it was a surprise." He shrugged. Bee would have told him if the Decepticons were back. Right? Right?!

"That doesn't sound good. Knowing Bee it might be anything."

"Yeah, but we'll find out when we get there. Ah, mom's yelling at me, wait a sec... WHAT?"

"Bee is here!" he heard the muffled yell back. Huh, the bot was early. Usually he was late, because of missions or something else that Ratchet or Optimus had cooked up for him.

"Have to go, Bee's here. We'll come pick you up in fifteen minutes. Be ready!" Be it cons or something else, he'd soon find out what the surprise was about.

"I've been ready for the past hour lazy pants. See you soon! Bye!"

"I'm not lazy-" he tried to argue, but noticed he was arguing against the steady sound of ended call. Sam stared at his phone for a while. He was not lazy. Definitely not. He was just slow at waking up.

Well maybe he was lazy. Perhaps he should work out more? He didn't have nice abs or muscles like Trent. Should he have?

He stopped his musings when he heard a honk from outside.

"Yeah, yeah, coming, coming!" he yelled and grabbed his keys and wallet. Now where were his pants. Clothes, clothes, where were you hiding, ha-ha! He was proud to have found clean jeans. Lately his room had been in even more of a mess, thanks to Mikaela and the bots. He just didn't have time to clean it.

Luckily mom had bought that excuse, although she still nagged about it every time she came in. Yeah, well, maybe his kingdom of pure awesomeness was a tad messy, but he'd clean it at some point. Tomorrow might be a good day. Yes. Tomorrow was the perfect day.

He whistled Ninja Turtles theme while he tried to find a good hoodie and in the end opted for the one that his hand found out first. Smelled a bit burned, but not too bad.

"Good enough," he muttered and checked himself in the mirror. Yeah, looking good handsome. Show those pearly white teeth. Yeah, perfect. Tiger.

Sam could hear Bee honking again.

"Coming!" he yelled and took a final look at the mirror. Clothes – on, hair – good enough, dimples – none. Perfect.

"Mom! Do we have any coffee left?" He needed his daily dose of caffeine before leaving. He could take a cup with him, Bee would drive anyway. He was just a decoy on the wheel.

"Are you sure need caffeine, hun? Bee says it's not good for you" Sam could hear his mom's answer from the laundry room. Sam scoffed. It just made him a tad hyper. Nothing too bad.

Honking again. What was wrong with Bee, he never was this impatient.

"I am coming! Stop with the honking!" he yelled from the window. Bee's answer was another honk. Sam couldn't resist sighing. The neighbors would notice soon. Apparently he had no choice but to hurry. Now where were the coffee filters...

After hoping that his coffee wouldn't taste like death this time (only three spoonfuls of coffee grounds this time) he started staring at the coffee machine intently. Drop faster, faster. I don't have the all day!

While waiting for the coffee the pour he fingered his hoodie idly. It had a slight scent of ash and smoke in it and he debated with himself whether he should change it. Where had he used it anyway?

"Slag it!" he yelled when something pinched his finger inside the hoodie's pocket and next all went to hell. He saw something flash electric blue and his head was filled with sudden pain, filled with pictures that didn't have any sense to him and he could hear himself mumbling something very incoherent. Last, but not not least, he felt an electric shock go through him.

Next thing he knew, he was sitting on the kitchen floor, panting heavily and sweating like a pig. What the hell had just happened? He could hear Bee still honking outside, but it sounded muffled, like his hearing didn't work as it should.

If traveling through a Stargate would be possible, it would probably feel like something similar. Then again no, because traveling through a Stargate would be awesome and that definitely was not awesome.

Oh god, he was going to be sick.

"Sam! Sam! Are you alright? You screamed so loudly I dropped the detergent on the floor! What happened? Did you burn your tongue again?" her mother was babbling when she came to kitchen and Sam could see her stopping abruptly. He didn't look that bad did he?

"Samuel, don't move. The...the..." she was moving very slowly towards the kitchen knifes. Sam felt a lump form in his throat. Was there a Decepticon behind him? What was it? What had happened?!

"Is... is there a Decepticon behind me?" he whispered, even though he didn't know why. The con could hear him perfectly well if there even was one. But why didn't it do anything? He was basically helpless. Ready to get shot at.

He hoped dying wouldn't hurt too bad.

Sam tried to swallow the lump and followed his mother with his eyes. Judy was still, very, very slowly moving towards the knives. Sam could hear faint scratching from where the coffee machine was.

His mother was trying to tell Sam something with her eyes, rolling them and pointing towards the door. Sam refused and pointed his head towards the knives. Her mother should get to safety. Their slow head movements continued on for some time until they both realized the con hadn't still done anything.

"No!" his mother fiercely whispered when Sam carefully turned his head and gazed towards the coffee machine. Except there wasn't a coffee machine anymore. There was a small bot staring at him with huge indigo eyes. It didn't seem to have any weapons. Well, unless you counted the coffee pot in its hands a weapon. It could be used as such, since it was filled with hot coffee.

"Now, now, we don't want do anything rush," Sam said and slowly raised himself from the floor. "Good Autobot, you're not a Decepticon are you? You are a good Autobot, right?"

"Aren't the small ones always Decepticons," his mother pointed out behind him. "The nasty ones?" Well, Sam had to admit the small ones he had seen had always been Decepticons. With nasty blades and guns. But this one didn't seem to have anything but the steaming coffee. And it had blue eyes.

"They should have red eyes," Sam whispered back to her. "I think this is an Autobot." He hoped it was an Autobot. Otherwise they'd both be dead soon. From burning coffee.

Wait, what?

"But you don't know it?" her mom asked. "You know all of the Autobots! Shouldn't you know this one too?" Her hand was still advancing towards the blades, but the small bot didn't seem to care. It was intently staring at Sam. And still didn't speak.

"'Bee said there was a new one. Maybe this is her... Although I don't know why she'd be posing as our coffee maker..." His thoughts trailed out until his and Judy's eyes met.

"'Bee is pranking you again?" her mom dryly suggested. Yes. Of course. Damn, 'Bee and his pranks. And now he had an accomplice it seemed.

"'BEE!" Sam yelled. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO PRANK ME AGAIN!"

He only got a honk back at him. Next thing he knew there was something metallic against his chest under his shirt and something burning his feet.

"SLAG IT!" he yelled and felt the both hug him even more fiercely than before. Now he'd had to change his jeans. If he could find clean ones that is. And he was sure Mikaela was already waiting for them.

"My coffee pot!" his mom yelled and threw her hand in the air. "I hope 'Bee is ready to buy me a new one! And where is our coffee machine?" Sam was about to point out that he was the one that had received searing hot coffee over his feet, but then just sighed. Mom wouldn't really care at this point.

"Do you need help cleaning up or shall I go and give 'Bee piece of my mind?" he asked and made a mental note to slap the steering wheel a few times. Just to make his point.

"Go and tell him that was the last time I'm included in his pranking!" her mother fiercely said and went to get a cloth to clean the mess up. Ok, so it was okay to prank him? Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The bot was still clinging to him.

"You aren't very talkative are you?" he asked from it and received no answer. He sighed again. Best course of action now? Go yell at Bumblebee, tell him to call Mikaela that they'd be late, find new jeans and check whether he had actually burned himself. And watch out for the glass on the floor.

Of all the pranks that 'Bee had made this was the worst. The small bot had probably hidden the item that zapped him on his hoodie as well. Sam stopped mid-step. 'Bee had electrocuted him!

Oh that was it, he was going to give the Autobot a piece of his mind. You did not electrocute Samuel Witwicky! No!

He stepped outside and checked whether there were any neighbors around. Then he went to the yellow Autobot, who was now hiding in his older Camaro model and promptly kicked his tire. That received a small yelp from the camouflaged bot.

"You should be yelping!" Sam hissed at it and sat inside. "It's your fault that we're late from picking Mikaela and my jeans are riddled with coffee stains. Not to mention, I haven't had my daily coffee dose yet! I think I'm having withdrawal symptoms! And mom's furious and really wants to know where our coffee maker is. And now she has to clean the kitchen floor! Of all your antics..."

"Uhm, what?" The Autobot sounded very surprised, but that did not fool Sam Witwicky, no!

"Oh, yeah, playing the 'I don't know what you are talking about' -card. Really, 'Bee? I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Your pranks have reached their all time low. Seriously. Mom thought a Decepticon was attacking me!" He flailed his hand around him.

"A 'Con!? Where?!" 'Bee managed to sound even more surprised. Sam had to admit the 'Bot was taking his role very seriously.

"You know perfectly well! I didn't know that the new bot also liked pranking and I have no idea why she is hiding inside my shirt, but I don't like it! And you electrocuted me! Electrocuted! I almost vomited! This isn't fun anymore Bumblebee! Seriously." One of these days he would die of an heart attack! And bringing his mom into this was not fun at all.

"Can... Can I say something here?" There was something in the yellow Camaro's undertone that Sam didn't know how to place, but right now, he didn't care.

"Not until I'm finished!" he hissed and continued his rant about how unfair this was and how Bumblebee should never ever again pull mom into his pranks. That was just horrible.

"Oh, ok..." 'Bee muttered, but Sam didn't even listen to him anymore.

He fumed out for good five minutes until he realized 'Bee wasn't actually listening to him, but making humming and clicking sounds. And the Autobot under his shirt was answering. Seriously? They ignored him and talked in Cybertronian while he had fumed. Oh, slag it, he was no officially royally pissed at Bumblebee.

"You're finished?" 'Bee asked him with excitement under his voice. "Because I have news that will rock your world."

Sam answered nothing. 'Bee could talk to him all day if he wanted. He wouldn't listen to him. He'd talk only to Mikaela. Mikaela would understand him. Mikaela would comfort him. Mikaela would buy him coffee from Starbucks.

Now his day seemed a bit brighter.

"That's not an Autobot under your shirt," 'Bee said. Sam stared at the steering wheel and hit it. That was not funny. Not funny.

"Hey! I'm serious. It's not," the bot repeated.

"NOT FUNNY, 'BEE." This was not funny at all. Not – at – all. So there was a Decepticon after all hiding under his shirt? Probably had a gun towards his heart right now. He would die inside Bumblebee.

"It's a sparkling Sam! A SPARKLING." 'Bee's voice interrupted Sam's depressing thoughts. Sparkling?

"What the hell is a sparkling?" he asked. And why the hell was it latched against his chest?

"Don't swear when she's present!"

"Wha- what?" Now Sam was even more lost than before. 'Bee had never before commented on his swearing. They both did it on regular basis.

"A sparkling!" Bumblebee repeated and then realized Sam still wasn't following him. "A baby!" he then explained. Sam just blinked. Once. Twice.

"Let me repeat the question I just asked. A what?" He had not hear correctly, had he? A baby. He had an effing baby Autobot or Decepticon under his shirt? What the hell was going on?!

"A baby Autobot if we raise her. And I'm quite positive we will," 'Bee explained.

"I have a baby Autobot under my shirt?" Sam had to ask. A frigging... This was supposed to be just a normal day! This was just too much. Way too much.

"Yes."

"How the hell do I have a baby Autobot under my shirt?" Had 'Bee brought it with him. Maybe not though, because he seemed surprised. Or maybe this was a part of his prank.

Sam feared he was going nuts.

"I don't know! Where did you find her? This is extraordinary! I already contacted Optimus and Ratchet and everyone and, oh Primus, this is huge!" Then again Bumblebee was ecstatic. Maybe this was really happening.

"I'm still at the baby Autobot part," he had to admit. Wrapping his head around the idea was very hard indeed. Why had there been a baby Autobot in their kitchen?

"Ok, I'll calm down. Where did you find her? She doesn't know where she came from." So that's what they had been talking about. It surprised Sam the small one could actually talk if she was a baby still.

"Uhm, posing as our coffee maker. But there was something strange before she appeared..." Now that he thought about it, those pictures he had seen in his head... Bumblebee wasn't smart enough to pull an elaborate prank like that. And he was fairly sure he'd never mess with his head with their Autobot technology.

"Like what?"

"I found something in my hoodie. It stung my hand and I had these weird pictures in my head and I was electrocuted and noticed this blue flash and then mom noticed... her." He pointed under his shirt. He could hear a satisfied beep there. Apparently it liked him. No, _she_ liked him. Oh wow.

"Hm."

"What hm?" Hm coming from Bumblebee was rare. And now that Sam thought about, the Autobot was acting more mature than usual. He was calmer. Sam glanced again towards his chest. Oh yes, there was someone younger than 'Bee around now. Well, this one would have a lot of brothers it seemed.

"Ratchet is having a theory about All Spark. You had that same hoodie on when we were at Mission City. You might've carried a part of the All Spark with it." Sam glanced at his hoodie. How the hell did Bumblebee remember details like that.

"Then what happened to the piece?" Sam asked. Well, duh, it injected you with pretty weird pictures and then disappeared to somewhere. Wherever the pieces of All Spark go, when they have electrocuted someone. Annoying piece of scrap metal.

"It gave birth to...her. From your coffee machine." It seemed Bumblebee was having a hard time believing this himself. Then again, who could've blamed him.

And maybe that bump he had got on his head, when he had battled with his alarm clock had actually hit him harder than he thought. Maybe he was currently unconscious at his room, dreaming this all up.

That at least seemed more reasonable. Maybe. If you counted out the fact that he had known alien robots for over three months.

"I'm officially lost," he admitted then. His brain couldn't keep up. This was just. Wow. A baby Autobot.

He heard Bumblebee snicker and furrowed his eyebrows. He was laughing at him. He was sure of it.

"What? What is so funny?"

"Ratchet is congratulating you on being a father," 'Bee answered smugly. It took a moment for the message to sink in.

"HE WHAT?!"

This day was now officially the weirdest day of his life.


	10. Chapter 10: If only I had a wrench

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: movielover121796 (Thank you! ^_^)

Rating: T

Pairing: OC x Twins

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,335

A/N: Ok, I'm not going to keep you in suspense anymore. It's going to be OC x Twins. I love them.

Ps. I'm doing better. ^_^ Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter!

oOo

**Chapter 10: If only I had a wrench nearby...**

Sparkling. A real, living sparkling.

Ratchet could not wrap his processors around the idea. It was just so astonishing, so unbelievable. The last sparkling he had met was Bumblebee and his sparkling days seemed like aeons ago, even though they weren't that far away when you considered the lifespan of an Autobot. Ratchet could faintly remember the cooing sparkling Ironhide had brought back from on his missions.

Bumblebee hadn't lost his cuteness over the years.

He had been trying to reach Prowl, again, when 'Bee had contacted him, frantic about something. It took him a while to understand that Bumblebee's busy and quick Cybertronian was about Sam and a sparkling. Apparently Sam had birthed a sparkling from his coffee maker.

Whatever the frag that meant.

So Ratchet did what he usually did when someone presented with him ideas that were ridiculous. He told 'Bee he was not amused and was busy, like he was. If possible, Prowl was beginning to be worse. He didn't react to anything anymore. Ratchet was running out of ideas and was beginning to feel that maybe the work he did was for vain. Maybe Prowl was too far gone. He almost shut his com-link off too so he could focus properly on Prowl and not to 'Bee's silly pranks.

He was glad now he didn't. What 'Bee sent him next almost send him to his aft on the spot. Well, he had to sit down to calm himself. But the file... It was just so... Ratchet couldn't find words.

A live feed of a sparkling. The pretty thing was hiding under Sam's shirt, slowly blinking underneath his shirt's collar with light blue eyes, probably enjoying the warmness. He couldn't believe his optics and processors. The quiet chuckle from Bumblebee woke him from his amazement.

.:Cute, eh?:.

He couldn't agree more. He also had to tell 'Bee to send his best regards to the new father.

Quickly the medic and scientist in him took over and he asked Bumblebee what _exactly _had happened. Sparklings didn't just randomly sprout from electrical equipment! Something must have caused it. Something big.

And again, it all came down to the shards of All Spark. From what Ratchet could gather, Sam had had one on his hoodie, which had electrocuted him and the next thing Sam knew – there was a sparkling in his kitchen.

Ratchet didn't often hope for Wheeljack's presence (because it indicated a lot of explosions and injured bots), but now he hoped his friend would have been there to make sense of this situation. He couldn't resist a glance towards Aurora's direction. The said femme was currently lying down on her berth and reading about Cybertron.

Why had the All Spark brought her back in a Cybertronian body? And why had it birthed a sparkling and then vanished? Were there other shards somewhere? Did the Decepticons or humans have them? Could they be used to give birth to more sparklings?

His thoughts were brought to a halt when 'Bee informed him they were on their way and that Sam was beyond shocked about his "fatherhood". Ratchet forbade him to tell Sam that his quip about being a father had been a joke. He wanted to see the nervous teenager for himself. He always got awkward when Ratchet presented him with the ideas of reproducing.

The next moments were spent in a hurry blur. He needed to set up the med-bay to receive a sparkling and sent info about her, _a femme sparkling, what were the odds?, _to both Optimus and Ironhide, who would both probably want to see her immediately. Unfortunately Optimus was currently in Washington DC meeting with the president and it would take him time to get back to base, but right now the sparkling was their first priority. The president could wait.

Oh, Primus. _A sparkling._

Apparently even Aurora had noticed something was up, because now she was sitting upright and looking at Ratchet with her head tilted. Ratchet couldn't resist to grin back to her. Maybe the sparkling would cheer her up as well.

"Something is up," she concluded. Lately she had been more forthcoming and not hiding behind courtesy anymore. Which was good. She needed to learn to be herself, with both good and bad sides. She still was very careful around them and avoided confrontations.

"More bots," Ratchet explained. A sparkling Autobot! Ironhide was already bombarding him with messages of who would be the new bot's guardian. Ratchet didn't really have a preference as long as it wasn't the twins.

A mere thought sent shivers down his nerves. Twins. Sparkling. No. Just no.

"Oh! From Space?" Aurora asked, clearly interested. Ratchet couldn't but to feel proud of her attitude. From day one she had been co-operative and clearly wanted to help them. She was slowly beginning to understand how her new body functioned and had even learned to lift things without dropping them to the ground. She was also trying to learn everything she could about their race and Cybertron.

"Not quite. 'Bee is bringing a sparkling to the base." Ratchet didn't expect her to remember what a sparkling was, but once again she surprised him with her memory. Or perhaps she had finally learnt how to use her memory banks. That would be good.

"A child of your race?" Aurora sounded as astonished as Ratchet felt. "How is that possible?"

"Remember what I told you of All Spark? Before it was sent to Earth, it was used to create Sparklings. It was a great day to future parents, to walk in the auditorium with protoforms and be granted a spark to give life to them. It seems that one piece was left on our ally's hoodie and gave life to one last protoform before vanishing. The All Spark piece on your body apparently did the same, because our scientist couldn't find it when conducting their autopsy and experiments," Ratchet told her and the moment the last sentence left his lips he froze. Aurora hadn't known they had her body.

Oh frag, this would not end well.

He hoped Aurora hadn't picked up on the fact, but his hope was for vain. Aurora's body had gone from relaxed and attentive to frozen and rigid in an astrosecond. He wasn't sure if it was because she was living past horrors of her death or because they had her body without her knowing about it. Even her optics, which usually held a friendly gaze, had turned so wide Ratchet was beginning to fear they would fall off.

Which was medically speaking impossible.

"My – what – experiments?" She sounded distraught and apparently needed a moment to collect herself since she sighed and closed her optics. Ratchet was not prepared for the look she sent to him when she opened them.

She had never seen her with a look so full of steel and disdain. Even when she had accused him of hurting his patients, her look hadn't been so cold.

"Optimus and I thought it would be best not to upset you with the fact that we had your body," Ratchet tried to explain, but was interrupted when Aurora rose from the berth and took a step towards him. Now, this was going to be interesting.

"Upset," she repeated. "Upset about what? That you had _my _body, without _me _knowing about it and you were, what, conducting experiments on it, without _my _permission? Why on Earth would I be upset about that? It's not like I care about it anymore! It's not like I want to have my body back and live a normal life! It's not like I want to be living in this body! So why the hell would I be upset?" There was a fire burning in her eyes that Ratchet was surprised to see. She was usually so timid, so modest, not making a noise about herself and trying to hide away whenever she could.

This was definitely a change. For the better. She had never expressed true, heartfelt anger before and argued with them wholeheartedly, probably because she was too afraid to do so. This was a good sign.

He was about to explain that actually, they didn't conduct the experiments, but the human government did, but he was quite sure his reasoning would fall to deaf audio receptors. And besides, he was too busy admiring the backbone Aurora seemed to have grown suddenly. She had shown signs of it before, but never this aggressive.

She was having a full on _battle stance_, like she was ready to smack his faceplates and the glare she sent to him rivaled one of Chromia's. He couldn't help but to smile. The small, timid Aurora, finally breaking out from her shell. And even if it came to blows, he could handle himself. He had offlined her weapons the first day she had arrived and she had no knowledge of bringing them back online, so he was safe.

"You think this is funny?! We have basic human rights here, you know! You can't just barge in with your barbaric, alien customs and think you can do anything you like! It doesn't matter that you are technologically more advanced than us, you brutes! You need to respect us humans! We have feelings too! It doesn't matter that you have weapons capable of mass destruction or that you are the size of a friggin' apartment building..." her voice trailed of slowly, like she was just beginning to realize what she was doing. "Oh gods. Oh gods. I'm so sorry, I did not mean any of that!"

The smile Ratchet had had a moment ago died, when Aurora looked at him more afraid than ever before.

"Please don't kill me," she whispered. When he tried to answer that he would never, ever hurt her and raised his servo to comfort her, she actually screeched and tried to run away. That only resulted in her legs tangling and her falling. Ratchet tried quickly to catch her, but to his amazement she was quicker and had scurried off from his reach, until her back hit the wall.

"Aurora," he said firmly. "I won't hurt you. It's good that you spoke your mind. You need to do that more often. It's healthy."

His words didn't even seem to reach her. If only, they agitated her even more and she was trying to hide herself under her servos while quickly repeating:

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Ratchet was no stranger to these kind of patients. Many of the Autobots had received torture during the war and expressed similar symptoms. What worried him was the fact that she wasn't a soldier. So who could have hurt her so?

"Aurora," he tried again and slowly started walking towards her. "I'm not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. You are safe. You are with friends. There is nothing to be afraid of." He kept repeating that until he was right next to her. She had stopped speaking a while ago and was now just whimpering nonsense.

That was the moment the twins decided to pay a visit to the med-bay. Of all the possible timings they could have chosen, this was probably the worst.

.:Leave. Now.:. He didn't even turn his gaze towards the door, instead of focusing on Aurora. The moment the hissing of the door opening had been audible, she had stopped her whimper and frozen completely. Not a sound could be heard from her.

"What the frag did you do to her?" he could hear Sideswipe asking and coming closer. If possible, Aurora seemed to grow even smaller.

.:LEAVE.:.

He could not bring Aurora out from her state if there were others bothering. Ratchet had the sedative ready in case he'd need it. Hopefully he'd be able to talk her out from her panicked state.

"Aurora, are you alright? Did Ratchet do something to you?"

Ratchet could practically hear his teeth grinding together. He didn't need the meddling twins right now. This was a serious medical situation. The twins needed to go. Quickly.

.:She's having a panic attack. You don't help. Leave. NOW!:.

And how in the pit had they once again figured out the code to the med-bay door!?

Suddenly Aurora lifted her head and tried smiling towards Sideswipe. Too bad her smile was forced and couldn't probably fool anybody.

"I'm fine," she said with wavering voice, but it cracked near the end. The frag she was. And again trying to cover it up.

"Frag you are," Sideswipe voiced Ratchet's thoughts and before Ratchet could object vocally he was already next to Aurora. "You are a mess."

Before Ratchet could state that both of the twins were hindering more than helping, the more unstable mech decided to open his audio banks.

"Pfft. Worthless meatbag. I don't know why you bother with her. Clearly she is weak and pathetic," Sunstreaker offered his helpful insight. Ratchet could feel his head turn towards Sunstreaker the same time as Sideswipe's did. Ratchet didn't thought it possible to dislike Sunstreaker even more than he already did, but once again the other mech proved him wrong.

"Get. Out," Ratchet ordered. Sideswipe didn't say anything, but the look on his optics spoke volumes. He did not approve of his brother right now. If Ratchet had had his wrench nearby, it would be now embedded deep in Sunstreaker's skull. Very deep.

Nothing could have prepared him for Aurora's reaction though. He had thought possible she would be even more upset, but this...

"What... What did you say?" she asked, her gaze unbelieving and optic ridges raised high.

"You heard me, _scum._"

Ratchet was ready to bounce on Sunstreaker to beat some sense into his thick head that moment, but noticed that someone had beat him to it. And it wasn't Sideswipe.

Quicker than he thought possible, Aurora had jumped on the golden menace and was using every ounce of strength her small frame possessed to try and cause a dent. Both he and Sideswipe could do nothing but look, their mouths open wide. _What – the – frag? _

"I'm not weak! I'm not pathetic!" She emphasized her every word with a wild swing towards the Sunstreaker, who was not impressed at all.

"You certainly act like one," he retorted while effortlessly dodging her blows. "Besides, you are a human. You could be nothing more than a weak and pathetic bag of meat and bones to crush. It's not your fault. It's just who you are."

"I – am – not!" Her yelling finally came to a stop when she actually managed to land a lucky hit on Sunstreaker's faceplate. Which was not because of her skills, but because the mech's attention had been elsewhere. On the human holding a sparkling to be exact.

That was the moment, when Sideswipe finally managed to gather his bearings and jumped on his brother, trying to subdue him from killing Aurora right then and there. Ratchet was glad for Sides' quick reflexes. He still had a hard time of wrapping his thoughts around of what had just happened.

"She hit me!" Sunstreaker complained and tried to get past his brother.

"Can you blame her? I wanted to hit you too!" Sideswipe yelled back at him.

"Is this a bad time?" Sam asked carefully with Mikaela right next to him, both looking a bit dazed by the show ahead of them. Sideswipe was currently holding enraged Sunstreaker on a headlock, while Aurora was busy trying to beg forgiveness and Ratchet was still rooted on his spot.

"I'll kill her!" Sunstreaker yelled and managed to scare both Aurora and the sparkling. The sparkling decided to do what bots that age do best – run away – with Sam and Mikaela in it's tow.

"You scared her!" Bumblebee accused Sunstreaker, before stomping after the runaway and the human duo.

"Mocha! Come back here this instant!" Ratchet could hear Sam yelling in the corridor.

Aurora on the other hand didn't suffer another nervous breakdown, but looked like she was about to.

"I'm so sorry," she tried to reason with the golden mech, but received no intellectual answer. From Sideswipe's strained expression Ratchet could gather he was getting tired of holding the mech down and Sunstreaker would break his hold soon.

Ratchet quickly stepped in between Aurora and the twins.

"You will not touch her," he stated. "She is one of us now and you will not harm her. If you do, I'll have Optimus throw you out." They both knew he wasn't kidding. He could tolerate the twins and their antics – to a point. Hurting a femme was out of the question and both the twins knew that.

Sideswipe seemed to continue the talk via the com-link, because Sunstreaker stopped struggling and sent his brother a long accusing glance. Aurora was wriggling her servos nervously and Ratchet hoped to Primus she wouldn't suffer another breakdown. Although letting out steam was good, attacking Sunstreaker was never a good idea.

Unless you were armed with a wrench and a bunch of sedatives that was.

Finally Sideswipe let go of his twin, who seemed to be grinding his teeth together. For once Ratchet would have liked to know what the twins had discussed, but realized this was not the best of moments to ask about it. The situation was still flammable.

"I am sorry," Sunstreaker spat out from his mouth. "I should have not called you those things."

Only Sunstreaker managed to make an apology sound like insult as well. But at least he was apologizing. Ratchet sent a questioning glance towards Sideswipe. Something was up. The Sunstreaker Ratchet knew would have never apologized to Aurora. Or to the meatbag, as Sunstreaker liked to call her. Or other humans for that matter.

"I'm sorry. I should have not hit you. I don't know what came over me," Aurora answered to him. Her apology was way more believable. She sounded heartbroken. Ratchet decided he should try to remind her there was nothing bad about hitting Sunstreaker. Unless Sunstreaker was able to hit back. Then it was a very bad thing.

Do not anger the best hand-to-hand combatant on the team.

"Now that is over the way – was that a sparkling I saw?" Sideswipe quickly changed the subject. At that moment Sam and Mikaela returned with the sparkling with Bumblebee in tow. "Apparently it was a sparkling. Why the slag weren't we informed about this?"

"And risk the possibility that she would actually form a spark bond with you? That she would choose you as her guardians? Never," Ratchet explained and send a message to Ironhide informing the precious package had arrived. Too bad the twins knew about her existence as well.

Sometimes he felt like he was living in a mental institute.

"We named her Mocha!" Sam informed them happily. Sunstreaker didn't do a very good job hiding her disdain, but at least he behaved himself in the presence of the sparkling. Ratchet was thankful for that.

"You named her Mocha. I wanted her to be Andromeda," Bumblebee darkly muttered.

"Well, at least I managed to persuade Sam not to call her Caffé Latte! Of Kofi. Which still is a boy's name," the last quip Mikaela directed towards Sam and rolled her eyes.

"But she came from a coffee machine!" Sam argued. "I want her to remember that!"

"Coffee machine?!" Sunstreaker blurted out, not able to contain himself anymore. "And get your filthy human hands off her!"

"His hands are not dirty!" Aurora argued.

"I'M HER FATHER!" Sam yelled.

Scratch that. He was clearly living in the pit.


	11. Chapter 11: Change in the Air

**Title: Breaking the Cage**

Author: ontuva

Beta: movielover121796 (Thank you, once again! ^o^)

Rating: T

Pairing: OC x Twins

Genre: Friendship, adventure, humor, romance

Summary: Aurora Banes suddenly finds herself inhabiting a Transformer. Never in her life have things been so utterly complicated. She can't even eat chocolate anymore!

Warnings: Cursing, domestic abuse, violence, AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and I don't gain any money from writing this fic.

Word count: 3,556

A/N: WHOA. Yeah, took me too long, once again, to update. I hope this chapter makes up for it. ^^"

Also, I want to thank everyone who is reading, favoritting, reviewing or paying any attention at all to this story. I never thought this would become so popular. o_o You amaze me! THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

oOo

**Chapter 11: Change in the Air**

Everything felt strange. Aurora couldn't quite find another word for it. It felt like her head was filled with emotions she didn't even know existed within her until this day. She had never, _never_, in her life attacked anyone.

Well, she had had some daily scuffles with her brother, but that wasn't the same. Aurora had never wanted to hurt her brother badly. She had never wanted to make someone shut the hell up so badly. She had never wanted to make someone so injured they wouldn't able to mutter a word.

But that had been her intent a while ago hadn't it? To make him shut up. Make him unable to utter another word. Make him pay for what he had said!

And that had scared Aurora. It had scared her even more than anything else since she had begun her new life. These new emotions. She feared them. She didn't know how to deal with them. Hate, anger, they were all reasonable emotions, but this new emotion... Aurora didn't even have a word for it. It had risen from her so quickly she hadn't even noticed at first.

First she had been so scared, so, so scared for her life and then all she heard was pounding in her ears. _Scum, scum, scumscumscumscum._

And then she had snapped.

Now that she recalled that moment she realized she couldn't remember getting up and starting to beat the mech. She didn't even remember hitting him. All was a blur. A blur of emotions and images and her own voice ringing in her ears. _Take that back! I'm not worthless! I'm not scum. I'm not going to let you call me that! I'm going to make you pay!_

She wasn't sure whether she had yelled those out loud or just screamed them in her head, but something had changed in her. She just didn't know what. And she wasn't quite sure whether she liked it. It felt like she was a stranger to herself.

After her... outburst, Ratchet had deemed it wise to make her leave the med-bay for a while. Bumblebee was to keep her company, while Ratchet himself performed the task of first medical check-up on their newest arrival, the little sparkling.

It wasn't like she was thrown out of the med-bay, but a part of Aurora still had felt hurt over it. The twins had also left, although Aurora didn't know what Ratchet had threatened them with to make them leave. She could hear their steps not far from where she was sitting on the floor.

"Are you alright?" she heard Bumblebee ask and kept staring at the floor before her. Before she even had time to think, the usual answer had come out and she could only grind her teeth before sighing in defeat. Some things just were in her backbone.

"I don't think you are fine," Bumblebee argued. "It's okay to admit it, you know!" There was agitation in his young voice and Aurora realized he was genuinely concerned about her. Like Ratchet was. Like apparently everyone here expect for that...

Aurora didn't even have a word for him. And just thinking about him made her want to punch something. Preferably his face.

Once again her vehemence scared her. Where did all this hatred come from?

It would be easy, just for once to say, that no – she was not fine. That she was broken. She was so broken she doubted whether she'd ever even be whole again.

Bumblebee was pacing in the hallway, making Aurora feel even more sorry. Sorry for herself or for making Bumblebee worry about her, she wasn't sure.

"I don't know how," she finally whispered, making Bumblebee stop mid-step. "I don't know how to say I'm not okay." She could hear him turn towards her and come at eye-level.

"Well, I think it is quite easy. Just say: 'I'm not okay'," he reasoned.

She had to resist a bitter laugh. It was not right to laugh at Bumblebee's earnest face, not when he was trying to help her.

"It is always not so easy," Aurora said, finally lifting her gaze from the dull gray floor. "Sometimes... Sometimes you have been telling yourself you are ok for so long, you don't know even when you are not okay anymore." She couldn't explain it better than that. She had lied to herself for so long. That she was okay, that she loved Dave, that she loved her job, that she loved her life...

One night she had awoken on her berth, from a dream, no, not a dream, _a nightmare_,that she was still a human, living with Dave. That thought had filled her with stone cold dread. When she had realized she wasn't in their home anymore and that she was in fact an Autobot and currently laying in med-bay, so had felt utter relief. And afterward confusion.

"But now you have us to help you! We will make you feel okay again!" 'Bee stated with such optimism and will to make everything alright Aurora believed him. She couldn't resist a small smile. Bumblebee truly had a heart of gold. It was surprising that he did, given that he had been a part of war for all his life.

Aurora hoped he would never change.

"Thanks, 'Bee," she said and truly meant it. The said bot was beaming at her.

"Just remember – everyone of us is a part of our family. You belong to our family now. If there is something wrong, just say it! Like, at one time, when I shared a room with 'Hide, he snored a lot. I think he still does. But you know, I was too scared to tell him that, because man, was he scary back then. I was sure he would kick my aft for telling that he snores! So, instead I shut up and didn't get any rest for a looooong time. I would fall asleep during missions and screw up. So eventually I had to tell him the reason. And you know what he did? Taught me how to turn my audio receptors off!"

Aurora listened to the bot before her and tried to follow his story. She was sure there was a teaching in there somewhere. In the end she just laughed. Somehow imagining poor, tired Bumblebee telling Ironhide that he snored was hilarious.

"And the teaching is? Tell people if something is wrong and they fix it?" Aurora smiled. Bumblebee nodded at her.

"Yep. And that Ironhide snores and you should never share a room with him if possible."

Now Aurora was laughing out loud. It felt good to do so. Perhaps everything would be alright after all. She just needed to vent some things out. That was it.

Their conversation was interrupted by a familiar red mech. Aurora had found that she really liked his company. Actually, she liked everyone's company on the base. Except for._..him. _She was grinding her teeth again.

_What was wrong with her? _

"Hey, 'Bee. Ratchet wants to see you," Sideswipe informed and waved his head towards the med-bay doors.

"No, he doesn't... " Bumblebee started and then ended with a knowing, "Oh! Yes. He has... pinged me many times. How could I have not noticed?"

Sideswipe just stared at him with a deadpan face.

That made Aurora laugh again.

"I will go and see Ratchet right away. Because Ratchet totally wants to see me!" Bumblebee continued and rapidly winked with both of his eyes to both of them.

"Oh for Primus' sake. If you don't leave soon, I'll tell Ironhide you skipped your training with us today," Sideswipe threatened while rolling his eyes.

"You wouldn't!" The horror in Bumblebee's voice was evident.

Once again Sideswipe had the deadpan face. Aurora was sure she was going to choke soon. This situation was utterly hilarious. Luckily Bumblebee did actually start walking away before Aurora had tested the power of choking laughter against an Autobot body to the fullest.

"You know, us bots don't do that," Sideswipe commented at her, when she was still chuckling and wiping at her eyes.

"Do what?" she asked. Oh god, her nerves were so frayed. Hysterical cry-laughter mood. She couldn't remember when was the last time she'd had that.

It could have been the Christmas when her brother was visiting and had sown sarcastic comments all around until she was afraid she would pee her pants.

"Leak from our optics," he clarified and sat next to her, sending a glare towards Bumblebee, who was still lurking nearby. Sideswipe just flipped him off, which sent Aurora towards a new laughing fit.

"Sometimes Bumblebee's a bit slow!" the red mech yelled, to which Bumblebee made a horrified face until finally grinning and stepping through the med-bay doors.

"But his enthusiasm makes up for it," Aurora commented. Sideswipe chuckled in answer.

"True that. So... how are you?" Now that his sole attention was on Aurora, she realized she couldn't face his gaze. She had attacked his brother! "Don't worry, Sunny isn't nearby. You can be honest. I won't tell him squad."

How could he be so nice to her? She had just tried to claw his twin's eyes out! And the whole situation had been so strange. She didn't know what was happening to her. One moment she was fine, the next she was a whimpering mess and then...

Maybe she was crazy. Maybe humans weren't supposed to live in Autobot bodies.

_And maybe boyfriends aren't supposed to kill their girlfriends._

"I have never attacked anyone in my whole life," she admitted.

"You haven't? Never?" There was a clear disbelief in Sideswipe's voice.

"Not like that. I wanted to hurt him. Seriously hurt him." She was ashamed to admit it. Aurora had never wanted to hurt anyone that badly. It felt like everything that ever done to her had been his fault and that everything poured out at that moment. She had wanted him to feel every painful punch she had received. And the shame. The feeling of being nothing. She wanted him to feel that.

"You are not alone in that sentiment, believe me," Sideswipe snorted. "Both me and Ratchet were ready to take it to blows. So don't feel bad over it. Sunny can be a real ass when he hits the mood."

"But that's not me! I don't... hurt deliberately. I'm a nurse! I heal. I don't go around punching people I disagree with!" Aurora disagreed. She just didn't do that. Even times when she had been angry, she had usually let her tongue do the lashing instead of getting physical.

Sideswipe was silent for a moment, probably contemplating her answer. Aurora wanted to explain it better to him, but she just didn't have the words for it. She didn't quite understand the situation herself.

"Maybe it's time you did?" he said after a while and rose from the floor, clearly coming to a decision. Aurora didn't quite get what he meant though. She should start expressing her feelings with physical aggression? Uhm, how about no?

"What do you mean?" she asked. Maybe she had misunderstood.

"We are in a war. The fact that the Decepticons have laid low for so long only means that something big is coming," Sideswipe explained while offering her his hand to get her up as well. She accepted it, but was still puzzled. He started leading her towards the door she had never dared to step through before.

"But I thought their leader had been killed? Doesn't that mean you have a fair chance of ending this war? And am I allowed to, you know?" she gestured towards the door while Sideswipe punched in the accept code. The roguish grin she received was all the answer she needed.

"There are always others who can take Megatron's place. And what Ratchet doesn't know, doesn't really concern him. And I won't tell if you won't."

"So... Where have you brought me?" Aurora said as she glanced around the huge hangar they were in. She also noticed that one golden menace was in there, but decided to pay him no mind. If he thought she was worthless, well... that was his loss!

Still, the surge of anger she felt surprised her. She still wanted to gouge his eyes out and feed them to him.

Seriously, what was wrong with her? His mere presence made her skin, well, not skin anymore, crawl. He reminded her of something...

He reminded her of Dave. That was it. He reminded her of Dave and that's why she hated him. He had acted just like Dave had.

"This is where we spar." Sideswipe's voice seemed to come from somewhere far away. Aurora had to shook her head to clear it and pay attention to the situation.

"Spar? You mean practice fighting?" This didn't sound good. She wasn't a fighter! She didn't want to learn how to hurt others! Her mother had once put her in a jujitsu group when she was younger and that had only resulted in a catastrophe. She was just too afraid to hurt others!

She had barely learnt how to walk a while back! She still had trouble running!

This – was – not – a – good – idea.

"Yes. And I think it is time for your first lesson. Sunny!" Sideswipe motioned for his brother to join them.

"What?! Lesson?!" Aurora blurted out. He was really going to do this. And it would result in utter failure. Aurora actually had to take a step back, when Sunstreaker was near them. He just radiated something Aurora found utterly nerve-wrecking. The golden mech was staring at them with an uninterested look in his face and started to talk to Sideswipe with what Aurora could guess was Cybertronian.

"It is rude to talk about her when she cannot understand you," Sideswipe commented dryly, which made Sunstreaker spat something angrily. Aurora didn't have to be a genius to know Sunstreaker didn't have a high opinion of her.

Well, that feeling was certainly mutual. She could once again feel the rage inside her churn. How – dare – he. She was right next to them. And he was talking shit about her. She was sure of that!

"If you have something to say, you can say it to my face!" she blurted out before she could stop herself. A cold mixture of dread and defiance settled somewhere in her middle section. Oh, it was not wise to anger him – she knew it. But she was just so tired, so very tired of being weak.

Besides, Sideswipe wouldn't let anything happen to her. Right?

_Right?_

Sunstreaker turned towards her, almost lazily. Like she didn't matter to him at all. She had to grit her teeth together, to stop her from starting to yell at his face.

"I think my dear and lovely brother is wasting his time," Sunstreaker said. "You clearly are not fighter material." He sized her up and down. "Even now you are shaking with fear. Pfft. You are not worth my time."

"So what? You are just going to walk away? Because you think I am weak?" The nerve of this guy. A part of her did admit he was right. She hadn't acted like a strong person lately. She doubted she even was a strong person.

What kind of a weakling stayed with their abusive boyfriends and defended them. Not a strong person. She was a weakling.

"I _know _you are weak," Sunstreaker concluded and Aurora couldn't face his look anymore. She had to turn her head away. A part of her wanted to cry and feel sorry for herself, but another part of her, the part that had just awakened was getting even more furious.

She could feel her body tensing with suppressed rage. She was going to explode.

"Enough! You are going to let her hit you," Sideswipe told Sunstreaker calmly. "And you are going to take it like a real mech."

"I AM DOING WHAT?" both Aurora and Sunstreaker yelled at the same time. They both probably looked like a fish on dry ground, with their mouths hanging open. What? She was going to hit Sunstreaker?

Not going to happen. Uh uh.

"Aurora, hit him. I know you want to." Aurora looked between the two twins. Sideswipe looked like a cat that had caught a canary in mid-flight, while Sunstreaker just looked like someone had just, well, hit him.

"I am not going to let her hit me. Why can't she hit you?"

"And mess my beautiful faceplates?" Sideswipe joked, but apparently Sunstreaker had had enough. He closed in on his twin and clashed their foreheads together with a wild string of Cybertronian escaping from his lips. Sideswipe answered to him with equal passion.

In the end it was Sunstreaker who gave up, turning his head away and spitting angrily:

"Fine!" His gaze turned towards Aurora and she hoped nothing more than to be somewhere else, preferably in hiding. It was absolutely furious and once again she felt like she would not survive this day. "Hit me!"

She just couldn't. She was rooted on her spot, staring at him with wide eyes. He was a head taller than her, broad as a bull and seemed lethal as hell. She just couldn't go and hit him.

And then he started laughing. He was mocking her again and turned his gaze back to his brother instead of her. It was like she didn't even exist.

Like she was nothing. Like Dave had told her. That she was nothing. That she should be happy that anyone at all was paying attention to her. That she'd be nothing without him.

"Look! She's too afraid to hit me! She's a waste of time. Like I said earlier, she is weak and will never be nothing else! She is absolutely useless!"

A loud bang echoed in the hall and time seemed to stop.

Aurora could only stare. She had hit him. Just like in the med-bay. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. She could see a trickle of energon dripping from where her knuckle had hit his cheek in the right angle.

The look she received from Sunstreaker was murderous. If looks could kill, she would only be a smoldering pile of ash on the floor. But her anger refused to let go. She would not be weak anymore. She would not be nothing!

She instead of covering in fear and whimpering, she faced his wrath head held high. She was sure her body was betraying her by shaking like a leaf, but she would not escape anymore. If he wanted to hit her – then let him. She was not going to run anymore.

It felt like aeon passed, when in reality it must have just a few seconds. Neither of them moved and even Sideswipe seemed to be somewhere far away.

The only thing moving was the slow trickle of energon on Sunstreaker's cheek. Slowly it streamed downwards, until stopping at his chin for a moment, until falling on the floor. Suddenly Aurora's nurse training kicked in.

"That wound should be looked after," she said. Sunstreaker didn't react at all. He just continued staring at her. "I... I have some..." Suddenly she couldn't speak anymore, but had to result in just showing him what she dug out her storage compartment. It was supposed to be some sort of band-aid, but for Autobot-use. She hadn't quite understood how it worked.

"If you could just turn your head a bit to the right, so I can..." she instructed and was actually a bit surprised her "patient" actually listened to her. She stuck the band-aid quickly on his face. "Now there, all better!" A nervous laughter escaped her lips.

He still didn't say anything. Just stood there. Aurora wasn't sure what to do. She glanced carefully at Sideswipe and noticed he too was rooted on the spot, his eyes glued on his brother. Aurora coughed uneasy and took a few steps back from the menacing mech.

"I... I think I should return to the med-bay," she said. The air in the room was just too suffocating and she had no idea what would happen if she would stay. Earlier Sunstreaker had yelled he'd kill her for scratching his facepaint. Now she had actually drawn blood, well energon.

Aurora was sure the mech's ego was substantially damaged at the moment.

Sideswipe nodded at her.

"You go there. I'll see you later," he said, still not letting his eyes leave the twin that was currently standing still, like a statue. Hearing his brother's voice apparently woke him from whatever shock he was in, because the next thing they saw, was him hulking away from the hangar.

"Sunny?" Sideswipe called after him, his voice unsure. The only answer he received was a thunderous blow, when Sunstreaker's fist hit the wall, leaving a dent.

"I'm going on patrol," he growled. "Alone."

And with that he left.


End file.
